Wild Horses Run
by L.A. Riverburn
Summary: Temp on hold till I seriously rewrite this lime that isn't supposed to be lime
1. Move 1 Two of Spades

WILD HORSES RUN

First move

Duds

Two of Spade

Let's put a nice disclaimer here. Though I don't know how you make a disclaimer nice… doesn't think roses and flowers will do much good to a disclaimer would they? Right… let's assume we've got a nice disclaimer, right? Beautiful, let's commence: All characters used in this story are copyrighted by our goddess Rumiko Takahishi, and all those firms who won a lot of bucks with it. Also the starting idea for this story came from a Belgium comic, called Ravian, time and space agent (alright, maybe the name sounds a little cliché, but it's a very good comic). Title of the comic (the idea came from a particular comic of those series) "De Vale schepper" , drawn by J.C. Mezieres and written by P. Christin. Now, on with the story.

Ranma looked around and noticed a door next to him. He had to be sure he was alone though. Them surprising him could be fatal. But they wouldn't get him; he would run, always run. It was not for nothing the ultimate Saotome technique. He would run, come back, and defeat them all. But for now, run, don't look back and always keep running. He pulled the doorknob, and gave the door a small push. With a nervous sound, the door slowly opened. Ranma waited 5 seconds, 10 seconds. 60 seconds. He crouched, and slowly peered into the room. He noticed no one. But that didn't mean anything. They could make themselves almost invisible. He crouched a little farther into the room. "Bang", Ranma ducked, and felt the bullet missing him by just an inch.

"Nope, no entrance."

He looked around, and heard people coming from the stairs opposite to the just opened door. Frantically Ranma looked around for some way out of the hall.

"Door… no, just opened that, man inside… stairs, nope, I can hear them descending… wall… wall, DAMN IT"… Suddenly, another bullet flew Ranma's way. Again Ranma ducked; again just in time… the bullet went straight for the wall …

"CRASH"… and would bore itself into it if it wasn't for the…

'_Crash…?_' closely followed by the crash; a sound of a window shattering. '_Glass breaking…jump now!!_' Without thinking another thought, he jumped backwards, through the broken window.

'_7th floor, damn Hadn't noticed I was ascending that much'_ Ranma spun a little in the air, as he descended rapidly. _'Nothing a little martial artist can overcome though_' he looked down, and noticed with much rejoice that he would land in some deserted alley, just next to the skyscraper.

'_Sorry people, need to get a little earlier out of your beds to catch Saotome Ranma_' he grinned. As he came closer to the ground he noticed his very uncomfortable landing place. '_Shit, Trash'_. He tried to spin, and adjust his course, but it didn't help. With a heavy thud, he landed right in the middle of the trash.

"Ranma… please wake up Ranma" The soft sweet voice of Akane drowned his present thoughts "Oh Akane, I'll wake up".

"Yes Ranma, please wake up, so we may enjoy this sweet day together"

Her voice was so gentle to his ears. However, the angelic voice was soon interrupted by dreadful images. Images of Akane, flashes of memory that he'd rather forget, would even die to forget. But they were there, and he could do nothing about them. She was so cruelly taken away from him. one gunshot "BANG" right through her stomach, another "BANG", this time her heart was the target and a last time "BANG" right through the bridge of her nose. Soon the rest of her family and his dad followed. Dad, Tendo, Nabiki, Kasumi, all were shot down, merciless. He wanted revenge, and entered their base, not thinking about "HOW". After 30 minutes or so, he noticed his problem when they started shooting at him. They had guns, he hadn't. Dodging the bullets as he searched for an escape; he entered the first best door, and climbed the stairs behind that door.

Ranma Jerked up. "No time to recall memories. Gotta get away". He pulled himself up, and stood in seconds straight up. Looking at the entrance of the alley, and noticing no one, he ran for it, ran for freedom.

'Hah, those guys in their nice suits, and their nice guns… so slow, can't catch me, guys?' an arrogant grin plastered all over his face

Ranma left the alley ran over the road, trying to reach the crowd.

''50 meter'' 'A_lmost in the crowd, no way they can find me there'_ "30 meter" _'Almost'_

An arm, belonging to a man in a business suit lifted his arm. "20 meter, gonna make it"

In his hand, he held a cold metal object with a trigger and a barrel "10 meter, bye bye suckers"

Suddenly, he pulled the trigger.

"And I'm… I…" "BANG". Ranma suddenly felt something piercing his stomach. A dull pain in his back made clear something or someone had hit him. Ranma, slowed down by the sudden impact of that something that had hit him, ignored it.

"I'm…"

Again, the finger pulled the trigger. "BANG". Ranma jerked as he again felt something piercing through him. This time though, it wasn't the dull pain he felt when the first 'something' had hit him, this time the pain was more direct, as if something actually pierced him. Almost falling to the ground Ranma still continued. Blood was dripping from his nose and mouth, but he held on, he had to make it. He had to… and for the last time, the finger pulled the trigger "BANG".

Ranma stopped. He stood straight, unmoving. Somehow, he felt blood, blood on his face. '_But, how…? I always win, don't I. and… and I gotta avenge Akane. How can I avenge her when… when…I'm dead…?_'

He tried to move his arm toward his face, but found that his arm… or better, that he didn't found his arm. He couldn't move, not even feel his arm. But that wasn't necessary. Soon, the blood he thought he felt, dripped in his eyes.

"I have to avenge…"

With a hard thud, he landed on his knees, with a back straight as a plank.

"Gotta avenge…"

Saying this sentence, he fell down on the cold stone road, 3 meters away from the crowd. While bathing in his expending bath of blood, he softly murmured the name "Akane…" before stopping to breathe.

"Ack" commented a female voice intelligently.

"Yeah, that was indeed disgusting" answered a blunt young man

"Aren't those downright intelligent words coming from your mouth" the female voice commented idly, as if noticing something that isn't worth any attention

"Hey… no one said you can't be perfect and have a nice vocabulary at the same time"

"Wow, again… such an expensive word "vocabulary", you know what it means?"

"sigh do we really need to go through this? We've got other things to do anyway." The male voice was weary, and gave the impression of wanting a bed more then anything else.

"aw, come on, don't be such a baby"

"Hey… I'm a baby when I damn well wanna be a baby"

"Hmmmz" The female voice commented, clearly already not listening,

"Hey, are you listening to me…?"

"Hmmm'' Answered the female voice back

'_Hmmm, indeed'_ thought the owner of the male voice.

He sighted, and sagged into a chair. Wheeling a bit, enjoying the wind in his face as he accelerated the turning of the chair, he thought about things. He knew why she wasn't all that happy, and also knew perfectly well that because of that, their dialoques were sometimes unpredictable, mostly rather unpleasantly unpredictable. She didn't like this situation, and sure as hell didn't like the things he had to go through. Well, it wasn't actually him going through it, but still. It was a copy of him dying there, sometimes messy, sometimes gory, other times cruel, but most of the time clean and fast. Yeah, Saotome Ranma could imagine why Akane was so pissed. He himself wouldn't like it if he constantly saw Akane dying. Even with the knowledge it was just a stupid copy.

Ranma stopped spinning. It was the real him. Those "copies" of him were as real as he was. Like him, they had a heart, lungs, bones and flesh. Every single one of them was an exact copy of him. Even their Ki's were the same, and because of the Ki being the same, this mission was possible. The Ki those copies possessed, interacted with his Ki. This was because: while the body was a complete entity on its own, the Ki those copies had were created by him, and thus were connected to him.

He wheeled the chair 180 degrees, getting a view of the desk with sheets, papers, and more sheets. All of them required for inventorying the gained wisdom from his sessions.

He grabbed a pencil, and a blank sheet.

"Right…what'd happened?" Ranma asked to no one in particular. Just a message to say he was going to start writing the stuff they needed.

"You died… that's all I need to know" The voice was not strangely filled with some sort of a bitter edge.

"come on… you've already seen it a couple of times"

Akane sniffed "Yeah… that's a couple of times too much" Ranma grinned. He loved to hear her proclaiming her love for him, even indirect.

"Anyway… I'm going to sle… I'm going to try sleeping…" and as she said that, stood up, and left for bed. Ranma watched her go '_indeed… trying to sleep…_' Ranma sighed, turned back to his sheets, and began writing his story

"guns… lots of guns…"

'Damn… why won't the sleep come' Akane grumbled for the sixth time. Every time she was drifting away, Ranma would enter her dreams, being dead, bleeding to death, or running into a dead end. It made sleeping a tough job, also a job she'd rather skip if possible. But she needed her sleep. The situation required a fresh mind, and a lot of concentration.

Ow, how she hated to concentrate on those horrible sessions. But if they wanted to get rid of this "in more then one way 'hell'" as fast as possible, they had to think clear.

At first she thought that she'd get used to it. After the first time though, she resented that thought. No matter how many times Ranma would be dying, no matter how much it was a copy of the real Ranma, it was still Ranma, or at least a part of Ranma. And she didn't want to lose anything of him, not even those copied parts. Every part of him was hers. She grinned at that thought.

She stood up, and walked to the mirror. It'd only taken her three steps to reach the mirror. The room itself was only 4 steps wide and 7 steps long, just large enough for a table, a small bed, and a mirror. It was, though small, a very cosy room. The wall, almost completely blood red, had all sorts of golden flowers painted on it. The floor was some sort of red carpet. She didn't know exactly what it was, she never was that good with carpets, but she did know it felt great to walk over it with bare feet. The ceiling had a nice comforting cream like colour. The table, a much adorned wooden and golden table, stood in the corner, opposite to the bed. And next to the table, also opposite to the bed, stood the mirror, where she presently was looking into.

She had changed through the years. She would've changed more, wasn't it for certain things that happened to her. All in all, it wasn't all that special. Just another weird Ranma-ish adventure, where she was involved in for a change. Only this adventure had some strange consequences for both herself and Ranma. They still had no idea what actually changed, but they both knew well enough that for two 19 year olds, they look particularly young, as if their ageing was screwed up, which eventually wasn't also the term they were looking for.

Not that she complained, not at all. But, they didn't know if their ageing was the only thing altered. Oh well, she didn't really care for that right now.

In those months, the only things that changed were, to her great delight, the size of her breasts, and some other peculiar body changes. She still couldn't compete with Shampoo when it came to breast size, but Ranma said they were perfect, that's all she actually cared for. Further more had her hair changed from an unsaturated blue to a contrasted bluish – black. She didn't know what to think of it, but Ranma really liked it, so she didn't worry about it too much.

She cupped her breasts, and looked at herself from the rear in the mirror. '_Not a woman, age 19, or a girl age 16. Not a mix, nor something in the middle. Just a nice body, if I may quote some pervert'_. She grinned at her reflection

And now, she was here, wasting her time seeing her fiancé die a hundred horrible deaths, and was expected to act as if nothing was out of ordinary. Well, they could eat their shoes for all she cared. If it wasn't for Ranma, the original Ranma that is, she'd without doubt jump after one of those copies to protect him.

Oh well, if she'd just imagined that it was all some stupid computer game, which coincidentally had a main character that looked a bit like Ranma, all was bearable. 'Bearable', only so she could cope with it, she still had a hard time being cheery about it. But then writing those reports…

Akane shivered before her mirror. Always writing stupidly detailed reports on how Ranma got himself killed this time. She hated it, almost hated it as much as looking at it. But it was said that it's necessary. And it indeed was.

Aaah well, she'd live. As long as Ranma kept her company, she'd be able to move the world if necessary.

'Now that I think about him_, is he still busy writing those reports?_'

She grabbed a towel from the tiny golden bed, draped it over her midsection, and left the room. The hallway she entered was a very small hallway, ornamented with all sorts of things. It was about 2 steps wide and 10 steps long. Light was provided by two small golden chandeliers. The ceiling, from which they hang, was like their room, adorned with a cream like colour, with all sorts of profiles in it. Halfway the wall, was painted with red, with golden dots on it, the other half (the part connected to the ceiling) was something between white and golden, very beautiful. The floor had the same red carpet as in their room.

The hallway had three doors. One door to a small, but nice and peculiarly modern kitchen (which actually was almost only permissible by Ranma, that kitchen was lethal when used wrong), a door to their tiny room, and a door to some area that she still hadn't figured out. The latter was now occupied by her fiancé.

Softly, she opened the door, and indeed saw Ranma still working on the report. Seeing him there, busy writing everything down, she felt a twinge of regret for him. On second thought, make that a boulder of regret. Sure, she had troubles sleeping, but Ranma couldn't sleep at all. The only way he could sleep, was when he was so exhausted that whatever came to confront him, would be ignored. There was also the way of just knocking him unconscious. But then that required much knocking from her side, and pain from his side, neither one of them she liked. Besides, it was much more fun to exhaust him to sleep. And she still didn't get it how he was able to be so… ehm… what was the word? Enthusiastic, merry, licentiousness, while near unconsciousness. She had to find that out first, before she would use other… err, measures

She held her hand before her lips, as a giggle left her throat. '_get__ a grip girl, this is not the time to be giggling like some school girl._'

The giggling soon dyed on her lips, as she again concentrated on the slumped form of Saotome Ranma. Since those copies where connected to him, in an energetically sort of way, he remembered parts of their dead experience. If that was the only thing, he'd probably sleep a lot more. However, the main reason for his inability to sleep was because he felt guilty. No matter how much those creatures were copies of him, for him they were brothers. All of them were exact copies of him, and still, none of them were the same. All were connected to each other. Ranma had explained it roughly, but didn't like to go in detail, because it might worry her. Hah, he hadn't had to worry about that. She was worried without him explaining it in detail anyway. But, from what he had told her, the connection they had through his ki, made that he felt, what all his 'brothers' felt. Not directly, only the knowledge. He knew when his 'brothers' were scared, angry, anxious, happy…She couldn't begin to imagine how it would feel to know perfectly well how a relative would feel, just before he would die, or feel when he thought he had escaped, but in the end dyed anyway. She couldn't and was very grateful for that. However, Ranma had to bear that burden. And, thus, to get rid of it as soon as possible, he worked as long as his brains would allow him. That much, he had told her, though she had heard another version in the rare times he slept. He was mumbling something about 'not suffering any more Akane', and 'I'll make my dead as fast as possible. Don't wanna see ya hurt'. She had wept at those moments.

Not feeling like pondering anymore, she slowly entered the room. Walking carefully towards Ranma, she made sure he wouldn't hear her. It took her no effort in reaching Ranma without being noticed. He was so deep in thoughts, so exhausted, plus, she was walking on carpet, that it was nearly impossible for him to hear her coming. Then again, Ranma had this strange ability to let impossible things seem easy to do. But luckily for her, Ranma didn't tense a mussel.

She was now standing behind Ranma, and still he hadn't noticed her, or had chosen not to let her notice, he'd noticed her.

She jerked up, and embraced him from behind. She noticed with a glint of satisfaction that he indeed looked genuinely surprised. She tightened her embrace around his neck, and hugged him. After some time, she released her embrace, turned his chair to her, and made herself comfortable on his lap. All the while, with naked breasts which were now bouncing happily right in front of Ranma's eyes.

"Can't sleep dear?" he asked with a hint of coming perversity. Oh, how she loved this macho, chauvinistic, rude, blunt, insensitive jerk.

"Not really no," a sudden voluptuous smile crept its way on Akane's face

"You kept me awake" she said with a … smile. Ranma recognised that smile. '_hah__, she must be thinking that I'm in need of sleep_' Ranma caressed his chin, with still no facial hair growth on it, fancying. '_Maybe I'm in need of sleep_'. His eyes drifted away from Akane's eyes, to Akane's bosom, that seemed intended on poking his eyes out.

Ranma's moving eyes didn't go unnoticed by Akane.

"You naughty naughty boy. How dare you look at a woman's bosom like that", she said quasi-angry. She began giving him a soft slap on the cheek, that ended in a soft, sweet caresses. "You naughty naughty…" her breath was heavy, and warm. It alone all made him so 'sleepy'. Akane saw the lustful look in Ranma's eyes, and took his faces between her soft hands, and let her warm breath caress his skin. "boy…" her voice increased in volume when Ranma cupped both of her breast, and caressed them oh so softly.

"aaaah…" Akane tried to say between moans "you naughty…" a bit on her right nipple made he squeal in pleasure "… … boy" she finally got through her teeth. Ranma reached behind her back, and caressed her back, while licking her neck. "You…" she breathed in Ranma's ear. "Are all mine tonight".

'One thing I've got to admit about this place' Akane thought wearily, 'you sure got a lot of privacy'. This was of course for the better. That was the other "way" this was a 'hell'. Well, hell… if what the stories told, and those angels and people in heaven were all very chaste, then she guessed that she and Ranma made this place indeed in some way a 'hell'.

Their room was small, but cosy. However, when getting Ranma to bed, size could be very efficient, so they always used that 'other room', when getting him to bed. It was big in comparison to the other rooms, and had a soft carpet, red as the rest of the little house, excluded the kitchen and bathroom which had very sweet green tiles placed on the floor and wall.

She watched Ranma as he slept soundlessly, a satisfied grin on his face. Yep, she really loved to put him in bed. And, as time passed, he seemed more zealous to put himself to bed also.

She let her hand softly caress his cheek. His grin widened, which resulted in her smiling softly, sighting in happiness. She looked intensely at his eyes. They were closed now, but it being the centre of his face, made it the most interesting part. While looking at them, she saw his entire face. His soft cheeks, his straight jaw line, his sharp, bright, but for the moment closed, blue eyes, and the handsome symmetry. She giggled lightly as she felt the house sized butterflies rummaging in her stomach. Still stroking his cheek, she remembered their previous adventure which made them so much closer.

It was a strange adventure, one of which she didn't understand much of even now. It was over before they realised it, and it had begun before they knew the problem existed. It left her and Ranma perplexed. Not just because they didn't understood a thing about their situation. But moreso because of what happened afterwards. Sure, they realised they loved each other, but that happened while they were adventuring. The things happening to them when they presumed that their adventure was over were… strange in ever aspect of the word.

Akane was never that fixated on biology, but even she knew that changing from a normal 19 year old girl, to a normal girl of unidentifiable age, was not something that should happen. Sure, strange things happen around Ranma, but not…well… not things like this. The only thing she knew of, that resembled this, was Ranma's gender changing ability. And that only affected Ranma. Never ever has something that resulted from those adventures, affected her in any way.

Oh well, she didn't mind it all that much. How many girls had the luck of actually looking like a 17 year old girl, while having a body of a 19 year old. And how many girls could say they married a beautiful stud like Ranma.

She giggled, and again studied Ranma's face intense. Oh yeah, a beautiful stud he certainly was. And it had only improved after that one adventure. His jaw line was more defined, his eyes more…more… damn, she couldn't find the right word for it. They looked so soft, so mature, and so immature at the same time. But they certainly looked like Ranma's eyes. Sharp, yet soft, gentle yet full of fire (if they wished to be gentle that is). His body… his body stayed somewhat the same, besides having grown in places. Akane suddenly blushed '_oh my, if I may quote Kasumi' ._ yep, he certainly had grown. For example, his arms were longer, his legs, his torso. He just had grown. Like her, he looked now like a 19 year old, but at the same time, you could see a 16, 17 year old boy. Not the 16 year old Ranma, mind you. No, his 'new body' had something resembling a 16 year old, but at the same time, clearly were not 16 at all.

Oh well, she had pained her head more then once trying to figure him out, she wasn't about to ruin the moment by putting an age on him. However, the most striking change was Ranma's hair colour. Instead of the copper, grey tinted black hair, it was now pitch black hair, with a hint of red. She did kind of miss the grey/ black hair; but that missing was seriously outweighed by the exotic beauty it gave Ranma. She was kind of jealous. She wished that those changes had made her hair also somewhat more exotic, instead of going from bleu- black to pitch black with a bluish tint. It probably had something to do with the hair-colour of his female counterpart, she reasoned.

Before the urge was getting too strong to wake Ranma, she stepped out of their bed, and, as many times before, walked to the mirror. Since it was a third of their room, she used it frequently. Also, she still had to get used to the changes of her body. And well…what could she say… She just loved to see her new improved hot body.

She stepped in front of the mirror, and observed herself. She saw a tall curved girl, with fine breasts, a perfect stomach. She spent a little more attention at her belly, and stroked it softly, musing dreamily. _'giggle Ranma sure likes my belly. Always kissing it, and generally giving it all his attention'. _Her gaze went down, and she saw what probably was the one thing that got most of his caring. Even that… even that was perfect, she thought. She hadn't seen much of those things on other females, but she thought hers was not bad, and Ranma liked hers as well, so no problem. And like the rest of her symmetric and curved body, it fitted perfectly.

Then her long smooth legs. She had looked dreamily at magazine girls, and models, hoping that she once would have half as beautiful legs as theirs. Now she could outmatch all those girls easily. She had smooth legs, without having to suffer from anorexia nervosa. And sometimes they served great when experimenting with… with… well, it was fun to experiment with them.

Her face was like Ranma changed, but not only in physical matter, also in expressions. This was an indirect consequence of the adventure she guessed. The first days after their admitted love, she had just dreamily gazed in front of her, always mumbling answers to any voice which wasn't Ranma's. Of course, Ranma, gazing right back, didn't say all that much either. But after those moments, her expressions changed.

One would expect her to still maintain those angry glares, because that was her, but one would expect wrong. Not anymore, nope, she had changed. She had grown. Maybe not normally, but grown she had. Not glaring anymore, she didn't always have a perfect smile plastered on her face. Sometimes, she had a wicked smile, sometimes a dreamily smile, sometimes even a challenging smile (that she thought was Ranma's fault, teaching her his bad manners), and well, she indeed sometimes had an angry glare. But that glare wasn't the same as some months ago. It was controlled, and with humour. And in the end, she indeed still had those irritated expressions. Then, much like in her younger days, she just looked bored and very irritated. She didn't like them, but sometimes things do indeed irritate her immensely. However, lately, those irritated glares would be directed at something, or someone besides Ranma.

In the days after that strange adventure, she had learned to coop with Ranma blunt character. It wasn't all that hard actually. He tried his best to keep them at a minimum. And now they were in love, they sounded more like a joke then anything else.

So, all in all, her face was satisfying to both her and Ranma.

She ran her hand through her hair, feeling the thick hair caressing her hands.

She made herself comfortable on the table, stretched, and admired her round firm breasts that now reflected in the mirror in full ornate. Yep, except missing her family somewhat, and the horrible, she shivered, episodes Ranma had to get through, this was relaxing and comforting.

She closed her eyes, leaned back, and enjoyed the pleasant thoughts she had, when suddenly, she felt two arms encircling her, and cupping her breasts. She didn't open her eyes, but instead shivered in ecstasy. In no time, the cupping, and stroking resumed in kneading, and softly pinching. Oh yeah, she really liked her time here. She turned around to look at the man she loved.

'_Alright, I think I got it_'. It was hard work; it was work that required a clear mind, a concentrated mind, a mind that wouldn't wander to irrelevant things, and a mind that could see things that weren't right. Summarised, a mind he had a hard time summoning. Hard working, alright, while probably not his best ability, he could work hard for something if he wanted to. He didn't really wanted to, but at the same time, really wanted to get out of this place, so; hard working wasn't a problem. A clear mind, that was trickier, but not impossible. Or the horrible thoughts about his "brothers" would come to haunt him, or Akane would walk into the room, and just sit there, making him ho… lose his focus. But, generally, if Akane was busy doing something herself, and he himself was concentrated on his work, both could be reduced to a minimal.

A mind that wouldn't wander to irrelevant things. Hmmz… well, irrelevant things usually didn't get his attention at all, but there were some relevant things that always had his concentration.

"Can I have that rubber dear?", he suddenly heard his heart pump into his throat. Now? At this moment? But he wasn't tired. Not that he minded, in the contrary. But he did want to leave as soon as possible, and leaving as soon as possible meant working hard.

And with a rubber? Why? They had never used one before, why would she want to use a rubber so suddenly? She used her pills to make sure they wouldn't get babies. Was he co… no that couldn't be it. He blushed. He was pretty sure that wasn't why. But why a rubber? And why now…? Why not? He turned around, and placed himself reversed on his chair, so that the back of the chair was pushing in his stomach.

"Lille Akane-chan wants a rubber? Why would Akane want a rubber?" he smiled wickedly at her. He knew she liked that, and he knew he liked it. It was something he never knew he would do, much less like it. But doing naughty things, and being somewhat naughty about it had a certain attraction that he could not ignore.

Ranma stopped speaking and watching lustfully at Akane when he noticed she started blankly at him. She pointed at her paper, and awkwardly said she made a mistake with her pencil, and that she lost her rubber. Ranma face faulted, eventually threw his eraser at her, and went back to work somewhat disappointed. Oh well, he had to get this done anyway.

So yes, some relevant things did always have his attention. He cleared his throat, and went back to work. Akane looked at him weirdly, before resuming her erasing, which she found strangely exciting, suddenly realising what that name also meant. She giggled, and blushed. _'Keep your thoughts on one track miss Saotome Akane, now is time for working' ._

'Must keep my concentration in check. Heavenly giggles… work… must work, not listen to cruel siren giggling. Why had she changed from clumsy cute Akane, into somewhat looking less clumsy but sexy and cute as hell Akane?' He had no idea, he knew he loved it… loved it so much, but why….? What he did know though was that he had to get back to work, right now. Yes, he had to have a mind to see things that weren't right, and he had just found it.

He suddenly sighed wearily. Solving such a puzzle was always somewhat of a victory, but it also meant that he had to go back creating a "brother", who would die again for him. Thinking that really puts that euphoria in a trunk, beaten and shot three times in the head. He tried to shrug it off, telling himself that they were only imitations, copies of him, that they weren't real. But if he could feel their despair, their fear, their anxiously, their vengefulness, how easy was it then to think they where not real, that they were "things" coming from him, that you use like… like a chair. It wasn't, it was tough, it was hard, and he didn't like it one bit. But, as many things, he had to get through it if he wanted to get out of here.

He looked at Akane, and at the room they were in. Well, he was sure that in time, Akane would start missing her family, as he would, but being alone with her certainly wasn't something he particularly minded. He thought of last night, and the morning.

Akane looked at her creation. '_Well, I think it's finished. I hope Ranma likes it_'. She looked at her bird. She turned her paper till she thought she had it right. The head was a little awkward though, or was that her tail? She turned her paper again 90 degrees, and finally decided that, that brown spot was indeed the tail. She proudly picked the drawing up, and held it before her. As she looked at it in complete bliss, she forgot what the tail was, and what the head was. '_Aaah__, heck, like that even matters. Those details are only important for art critics_'

She turned over, smiling, wanting to let Ranma see her little piece of art. As she turned, she saw him already looking at her, with a look she could recognise from miles.

'_Well, isn't he enjoying the sight_' she grinned to herself, as she remembered the previous night, and the wonderful morning. She plastered her own mischievous "smile" on her face that could easily rival Ranma's. Then she saw Ranma, she blinked with her eyes, she saw him acting like he was enjoying something very much. She blinked again as she saw him close his eyes, cock his head a bit, and opened his mouth, as moaning over something very pleasant, while being perfectly soundless.

At first, she felt a ting of anger that he was enjoying something or someone that wasn't hers. Yep, even though it must be months now, she still felt twinges of anger when she saw things that seemed to offend her. But those moments were rare, and when they showed, they were quickly put away in the darkest corners of her mind, and caged for good measure. So now she found herself answering Ranma's acting with her own acting, going only a little further. She touched her breasts, looked at it in genuine enjoyment, and moaned without making a sound.

Ranma, who had his eyes open, smiled as he saw Akane answering his excitement. He was still a little amazed that he did something like that. It was so, so totally not him. Well, then again, he had never found himself in situation like this before. So he wouldn't know how he'd normally react when in a small house with a woman he loved so much it hurt. But it sure was something else then stuttering, hesitating and generally screwing up whenever he was in anything close to a romantic encounter with Akane.

'_Must be because of my… eg… my ability to adapt_' he reasoned. Then again it probably had something to do with him feeling really unsure when in such romantic situations, were he was normally very sure of himself. Now there was no longer any need to be unsure, he changed it in what he normally was, extremely, obsessive sure of himself. And well, he decided that at the moment, it may show a little.

He placed his right hand on his right temple, and stroked it softly, just that tad more intense then Akane, making sure he was the most perverted of the two.

Akane smiled at her fiancée, feeling warmth suddenly welling up in her belly. '_I think I'm going to enjoy this_'. She let her hand go down her belly, and placed it between her legs. Her other hand, still on her breast, kneaded it softly. She closed her eyes, and moaned silently in pleasure.

She reopened her eyes, and saw that Ranma, just unbuttoned his Chinese red shirt, and stroked his own flesh. '_grmlbl__. He knows damn well that I'm the only one allowed there_' she thought wickedly, grinning in the progress.

And so they continued. Every time one of them went a little farther into perversion then the other. Akane squealed in pleasure, and laughed in complete disbelief. Some months ago, she would have likely hammered him continuously a week for that. Now she was enjoying the sight, and even participating. She had no idea what was to become of her, but whatever it would be, it would be together with Ranma.

She unbuttoned her dress, and touched the top of her breast, through her bra. She herself hadn't found the need to use a bra, they're alone here anyway, but Ranma found it "stimulating", so she kept it on. And actually, she felt a more beautiful, while wearing a bra anyway.

She looked at Ranma again, and saw that he had answered her movement. She smiled, lifted her chin, and looked at Ranma through her whimpers. She then closed her eyes, again moaned silently. Now instead placing her hand between her legs she placed it in her pants. She could almost hear Ranma gulping, staring at the course of her hand intensely. She opened her eyes slightly, and saw indeed through her whimpers Ranma gazing at her hand, or actually, where her hand was positioned. He couldn't actually see her hand right now.

This went on for some time, till she became to heated, and sensually strode to Ranma, once reaching him she snuggled herself on his lap. Ranma looked at her, curiosity showing in his eyes. She was, heated yes, but surprisingly, she felt more for just simple affection then getting intimate. Like, hugging, and staring, and wondering, that sort of stuff. And that's exactly what she was doing now; she had the back of her head resting on Ranma's biceps, her arms around his warm body, and her legs curled on his lap. While she indeed had grown, Ranma was still taller, so curling her legs on his laps wasn't a problem. Ranma, lately being very understandable when she required sweet affection, and not the other sweet affection, gently rocked her, enjoying the warmth and present she was providing.

After ten minutes or so, she spoke, calm, soothing. "So, how's the puzzle solving going?" she still had her eyes closed.

Ranma looked at her, smiling at the indubitable; very content face. "Not bad, think I got the problem" he said, strangely soft for Ranma's doing. Something she had yet to get used to. It always made her feel fuzzy in two ways. One: Ranma really felt something for the relation they had, and wanted her to enjoy it as much as possible, with him trying to talk warm and soothingly, two: speaking like that always made her feel so … pleasantly drowsy. Like she was flying, like everything was hers, and there wasn't anything she needed.

"Hmmm, you know, I never noticed before, but speaking so…" she took a deep warm breath, enjoying Ranma's soft caress of her side. "…warm, really…" she moaned softly, and snuggled deeper in Ranma's shoulder, not being able to end her sentence.

"Really…?" Ranma asked still using his warm cosy voice. Akane clutched tighter to Ranma, not wanting to let him go forever.

"Just, how you talk so warm, so softly, and still be you". He indeed spoke softly, soothing, but the content always stayed the same. Speaking softly slang, well, Ranma slang. She giggled. She loved that, as many things, about Ranma. How he did things he thought she'd like, and always end up doing a Revised Version of his own. Now with talking soothingly. But also other times, when for example he was massaging her. He remembered from a movie, how a male character massaged his girlfriends shoulders. So he tried that on her. But instead doing it very softly, always staying on the same place, his hand never stood still. 2 seconds her shoulders, then 4 seconds her side, then back to her shoulders. It was; special to say in the least.

She had dreamed on occasions that Ranma would just be like those men in the movies, sweet gentle, caring. And that she would be the sensitive woman, in dire need of affection. And then, he would come up to her, to safe her from the vile shampoo, and when the fight was over. He would take her in his arms, and then his lips would descend on hers, and they would kiss. Hmm, how often hadn't she dreamt such dreams? But she should have known back then, that something like that would probably be never hers. For starters, she wasn't a sensitive woman from the movies, or any general woman for that matter. She was Akane, and that meant a lot. She didn't think she would be satisfied by just being picked up and kissed. She also didn't expect Ranma to do that either. And indeed, when there was a comparable situation, he did something comparable, but slightly more Ranma. He didn't gently lift her in his arms; he just grabbed her, and gave her a ride by Ranma-air. He had tried to be romantic and grab her in his two arms, but he soon found out that she didn't mind him holding her with just one arm. And so he gave her a 10 minute ride in the air, jumping from roof to roof. She enjoyed then the wind through her hair, the sleek muscles that hold her, and the soft warmth that he gave her, he enjoying her presence.

He smirked at that. She didn't think he'd ever lose that, she hoped he'd never lose that. "really… does that mean I'm sensitive?" he smirked. She looked up, and saw his sly smile. She gave him a peck on the nose. "Of course not, just that you can talk sensitive"

"So, how can I be sensitive then?" he asked her genuinely wondering. She was thinking about that for some seconds.

"Well…you just ehm… be sensitive", she answered, not really knowing what to tell.

"Aaah… now I understand. Just 'be' sensitive. No prob, nothing Saotome Ranma can't do" he lifted the right corner of his mouth, forming an arrogant smile. She looked up, and gave him another peck.

"You just be your arrogant Ranma-self " she smiled

"No problem. Me being perfect and all. Gives me a hard time not being arrogant. Really, the trouble I've gotta do to keep my arrogance in check…" Akane stopped him by kissing him full on the lips. She had clasped her hands together behind his neck, sat straight up on his lap (her knees painfully pressing in his upper legs), and firmly pressed her lips on his.

A minute later. 'This is good… even delicious' Ranma thought straight minded.

2 minutes later 'I always love kissing… actually; I can't imagine an activity I like better, except err…'

2.5 minutes later 'but… breathing ain't bad either… inhaling through my nose is alright… but…' Akane hefted herself up, so she could press her lips harder against Ranma's. Also placed her hands on his jawbone, so she was sure he wouldn't move away. Ranma winced slightly when she straightened herself up on his lap, she still driving her knees in his upper legs. The pain was easily ignored thought, with the kissing and all.

3 minutes later 'yep… breathe always loved breath. Gotta love oxygen, but… kissing also nice'

4 minutes later 'if it wasn't for this awkward position, I might have an easier time inhaling through my nose. But as it is, I guess I'll have to wait. This kissing is way too… good'

4.2 minutes later. Akane straightened herself up even farther, pulling Ranma's face with hers, and making it even harder to breath. Not to mention that her knees were still painfully obeying the laws of gravity.

5 minutes later. 'I love kissing, but I think I love living even more. Also, while this kiss is delicious, the pain, and breathing problem is kinda outweighing the marvelousness of the kiss. Didn't knew that was possible'

A second later. "Uuh… moan " Ranma inhaled rapidly, trying to regain his breath. "I… breath I love ki… breath kissing" Ranma fell off his chair, grabbed the side of the table, and inhaled deeply. "But breathing is breath nice… so nice"

Akane directly jumped off him, the moment he began zealously inhaling.

"Oow, Ranma, you alright?" Akane asked worried, clasping him on the back, hard.

"Ok… I'm okay. Besides nearly dying from a shortage of oxygen, and torment… I'm okay, really don't worry". Akane sighed her worries out. If he could make stupid jokes, then he's okay. He tiled himself up, gaining support from the table. He bent over, holding his stomach with his hand. After a second or 5, he took one deep breath, and unceremoniously dropped himself in the chair. He wheeled a bit, pouting a little.

Akane looked as he made drowsy eyes, and pulled his lips up, trying to look very sad. She covered her eyes and shook her head in silent disbelief over Ranma's childlike behaviour. 'why, oh god why didn't he grew up.'. She leaned against the table, folded her hands before, her and saw Ranma now grinning, sitting on one leg, and spinning the chair lightly with his other leg. Again she shook her head, grinned and looked at her feet 'oh god, I love him, damn I love him so'

Suddenly, she saw Ranma's face instead of her feet. She looked at what he was doing, and saw that he had his feet locked behind the chair's supports, and bent backwards, so that his face came under hers.

"What'cha grinning for" he asked with a smile.

"You…", she said, smiling giggly "…I love you"

"Good… I'd have a word with faith if the… well… if… aah hell" he answered her smile with one of his one obsessively confident smiles.

"Guess you won't speak with faith ever then" she pecked him lightly on the nose. The soft push though, was enough for earth's gravity to finally have a grip on the stubborn martial artist, and pull him down, together with the chair.

"That's 1 – 0 for the chair, love" Akane grinned, looking down at her fiancée.

"No fair… the chair cheated", Ranma stated, pouting in the progress.

"Aha and how did the chair cheated?" Akane asked, now leaning with her elbow on the table, looking through her whimpers at, the still struggling Ranma.

"Hmmm…" Ranma stopped trying to disentangle his legs from the chair's legs, for a second. "Well… they ganged up on me" he said sturdy. Then resumed his fight with the chair.

Akane looked a split second aghast, not knowing how to answer that. "How…" she scratched her head "how do you figure that…?"

Finally having vanquished the chair, he got up, and wiped the dust from his clothes. "Well… both gravity and the chair attacked me, when I was in a very inconvenient state." He stuck his finger in the air "that's low, both the gravity, and the chair"

Akane stared in awe at Ranma. '_That was… that was brilliant reasoning_' she wide eyed Ranma, still in disbelief what she just heard. '_Well… for Ranma's doing anyway'_. She stopped staring, and wondered for a second. '_It is pretty mean of me thinking such things. Ranma ain't stupid after all, just selectively perceptive…_' Akane wondered some more '…_well, not when he doesn't feel like being anyway_'.

Akane startled her reverie, and looked up at Ranma, who was now sitting on the table, his feet on the somewhat dishevelled chair. He had some papers in his hand, which seemingly had his intense interest.

"What is that?" she asked, actually already knowing the answer.

"The solution… well, not the solution, the error, that… ah heck, you know what I mean". He moved a bit, making place for her. She accepted his proposal, and made herself comfortable on the table. He handed over the documents, which supposedly contained the solution… well, the error, that eventually was the solution to another error, and… Akane stopped the mental subject, not quite feeling up to a serious head ache.

'First things first', she said herself. 'Let's decipher Ranma's writings'. She looked intensely at the papers, trying to read the scribbles.

Ranma saw Akane looking at his solution. He was actually very proud at his discovery. It took him some time, and some serious thinking, but eventually he had found it. Heh, maybe he had to lose. But if losing meant winning in the end, then he'd readily lose. And he would certainly win in the end. Saotome Ranma always wins. And that was also the key to solving this "thing". Ranma still hadn't found a proper name for their problem. He looked around the strange big room. It was very nice, warm, cosy, decorated with things looking really expensive. But what was the use for such stuff when they were locked here. The only supposed way to escape this place is by "outsmarting" it. _'How do you outsmart a place?'_ This place was their problem. So he could call their problem "this place". But that was a rather stupid name for their problem, so he quickly threw it away.

Ranma shifted his position, positioning his chin on his hand, making a very pensive impression.

'_Now what would be a good name for their problem?_' he hadn't really spent any time finding a name for it before, but now he had the time, he tried to come up with one. '_"The locked up problem", ack no… "No escape possible problem", doesn't sound bad, but at the same time…it sucks. The "where the hell are we, problem"… that will do for now' _Ranma looked at the strange green device planted in the middle of one of the room's walls. That was meant to help them, getting out.

He still didn't understand the idea completely, but it was said that it would work, and since they had nothing else to go on, they believed it. Well, believed it, they accepted it, lacking an alternative. They didn't really have any other choice anyway.

He looked besides him, seeing Akane still staring at the same place on his paperwork. '_She trying to glare a hole in the paper?_' he wondered idly. "And…? Are the letters changing colour?"

Akane looked up, absent minded, and intelligently commented "huh…? What was that?"

Ranma sighed "I asked if you're having any success with those papers"

"Actually, I can't read a letter from it", Ranma face faulted next to her. '_Groan, why didn't she said so from the beginning'._He rudely grabbed his papers, and looked at it. 'Hmmm'.

Akane watched Ranma in perspective, looking intensely at his papers. She'd expect a burst of an explanation any moment. Pointing and reflecting on his papers as he went. But, he seemingly had to check something on his papers before explaining.

3 minutes later; her eyes had wondered to the far wall, opposite to the table, when suddenly Ranma threw his papers away with a jerk.

"Right, we don't need those papers anyway" she looked beside her, and saw Ranma grinning weakly. '_He couldn't read his own handwriting…?_' she groaned placing her hands on her forehead. '_Stupid_'.

Ranma looked genuinely hurt. "Hey… you try writing in perfect calligraphy when you hadn't slept for 30 hours"

Akane smiled, comforting Ranma, and leaned on his shoulder. "Forget those papers, and tell me what you found" she said, directly, but sweetly.

Ranma, still a little shocked at her unpredicted change of action, began explaining his solution, well, the error that brought the solution, to another err… Ranma told Akane what he knew.

"Well… err" Ranma scratched his head, not knowing where to start. All in all, it was fairly simple, but it had taken him an awfully long time finding it, and he didn't feel like telling his answer in 3 seconds, were he spent 3 hours trying to find it

"I started looking for…" Akane looked at Ranma, as he began his speech. She knew from previous experience that this could take a while. She loved to hear his voice, but not telling her in intense detail how he got himself murdered, well, how the copy got itself murdered. Correction, how the copy got himself murdered. Ranma hated when the copies were spoken to as "it". She leaned a little farther on his shoulder, and closed her eyes a bit, believing that Ranma would probably get excited when reaching the end, and waking her. She was still sleepy from their, good night sleep, as it was.

"… and now here it comes…" Akane jerked up, 'where… where am I?' with drowsy eyes, she scanned the room. '_Oh yeah, the room, Ranma telling his story…_' she looked up at Ranma, and grinned widely 'hmmz, such a nice dream' she leaned a little closer on Ranma. '_Such a very nice dream indeed'_. She made herself comfortable on his shoulder again, and listened carefully to Ranma.

"I exactly counted the amount of stairs I climbed. I made sure I made no mistake in this. Every stair I ascended, I linked to an action that happened there. I counted 5 floors. Safe one floor. When I jumped out of the window, I saw that I jumped from floor seven." He looked at Akane, seeing of she still was following. She nudged him to go on.

"So, that's where the error is. While I ascended only floor 5, maybe 6, I descended from floor 7"

He looked at her funny. _Did she just hear one word I said?_

"Such a nice soft shoulder, such a nice warm voice to sleep with… hmm" she urged her head comfortable on his shoulder. He looked at her curious. _What was he to do? She's probably heard him_, he reasoned, otherwise she wouldn't have nudged him to go on.

He sat there a minute or two, his hands between his knees, not knowing what to do. _Maybe I should do something, instead of admiring this 302182 times already admired room._ He looked again at his shoulder, and couldn't hold the content smile that demanded entrance on his face. What was she beautiful, and with the change, she'd only got better. His eyes went unwittingly to her breast. Oh yes, the change really did well. He suddenly got a stern look on his face.

Hmph, it was certainly not because of the change that he loved Akane. He had loved her since… well, since a very long time. Yeah… It was not because she suddenly got breasts that easily rivalled Shampoo's. He shifted his gaze , and looked down again, and quickly looked at her face. She was still asleep. Good. Sure, she didn't hit him anymore for looking at her bre… ehm… for looking at her, but habits were hard to unlearn. Well… breasts that were hard rivalled by shampoo's. well… it was certainly not because of that, that he loved her. It was just, nice, to squeeze, to gently stroke to…

Ranma's gaze went distant and stared into nothing, seemingly dreaming, murmuring something about 'so nice, so soft'. He suddenly shook his head wild. _No time to think such thoughts Saotome Ranma, well… yeah, always time to think those, but… just not now. Being a pervert is one thing, being a nymphomaniac is another. Right where was I? Ow yeah, I love Akane because of what she is, and not her body. Got to have my priorities straight. But hmmm. This 'openness' certainly ain't undesired._

He always thought that having a relation was…. He actually had no idea what he expected, having a relation with a girl. His father hardly had ever given him any sexual education. Sure, he had seen a lot, and, beauty coming natural to him, girls had asked him strange things before. But at that time, he was far too busy with his art to really care about such trivial things. Maybe it was because of this, that he was so… well, enthusiastic, that he really liked interacting with Akane. He never heard anything about sex, didn't knew it was part of a relationship, not to mention an important part. So, he never guessed a feeling like that existed. So maybe… when he found out, he needed more of it. And maybe, because of this…he was, he grinned, always ready to err…

Well… anyway, the lack of sexual education was rapidly fixed. Damn, was he happy that Akane never had enough of him. Sure, she was dead tired afterwards, but well… she never asked to stop, on the contrary, sometimes she just asked for more. Ranma grinned wickedly. Ow, and then she would get her "more". So, although he had no idea what maintaining a relation was, he liked it so far. He knew well enough that the relationship they had wasn't normal.

For one, most starting relationships, were not placed into a cosy, warm, comfortable house, that had no doorway. Second, most relationships didn't had a male that was probably, if he may say so himself, one of the strongest martial artist of his generation, and a female that was also a martial artist, and a damn special one. Not just special for him, but special in many ways. She was stubborn, she was a natural tom-boy and still feminine as hell, she was headstrong, she was cute, she was so much. He sighted. And he knew that their relationship would never be normal, and he loved it. Stupid things always had followed him, for as long as he can remember. He didn't see a reason for them to stop occurring. And well, boredom wasn't promised, and they could, interact in so many different situations. Ow yeah, he liked life.

Ow, there was always the thought, that this strangeness of life could once end in death. But he always put that thought in the back of his brain, put it somewhere in a closet, and blew it up with nitro-glycerine. If she died, then he would simply commit suicide. It wasn't a question, he would do it, without hesitation. Well, after the Romeo and Julia screw up, he had, once in a secluded area, read the script well. So, whenever something like that happened, he would make sure that she was indeed dead. But, heck, something like that won't happen anyway, so why worrying over a fact that doesn't even exist.

Ranma looked at his shoulder, and smiled. _Must be tired of last evening_. He lifted his left arm, and slowly brushed her hair. He liked her hair, liked it very much. It was so soft in his hands. From her hair, he went to her belly, slowly painting scribbles on her smooth belly with the top of his finger, watching her face, not wanting to wake her. He smiled once again, slowly lifted her head from his shoulder, and let it continue sleeping on the desk. He went for their bedroom to get a cushion and a blanket, willing to make sure she was sleeping comfortable. When he was done, he looked at his work. She was sleeping peacefully on his desk. Their teachers would probably comment on this, but that didn't really matter at the moment.

Ranma Saotome had things to do. Things he disgusted, and really disliked, but they had to be done. He looked one more time at Akane before going to the hated room.

He didn't have to walk far, 5 steps were enough. It was after all in this chamber that the entrance to the hated chamber was set. He looked at the double door, clothed with a sort of green carpet. Very soft on the hands, and actually very beautiful. But no matter how beautiful the door was, no matter how magnificent, and glorious the room behind it was(and it was, he never had seen a room that, on the onset, gave him such a grand magnificent and majestic feeling). He'd never feel anything but hate for a room, where he had to see someone he was stupidly close too, die.

Ranma turned the doorknob, and with building dread walked into the room.

"Yawn" Akane stretched herself, as if there were a wall stopping her arms, she would simply crush them. Actually, that wasn't an "as", there was a big chance she indeed would crush them. Still drowsy from her well slept day on Ranma's study table, she daydreamed a bit.

She and Ranma were sitting in a car. A very expensive car. One of those where you could only sit with two in. It was also night, and they were the only living beings on the road. There was no one they crossed, or no one who passed them. The only thing accompanying them were the plants, trees and bushes around them, the forest animals, and the romantic feeling between them. It was dark outside, as it was in the inside of their car. The only thing that made 'looking' possible were the headlights that carved themselves a way into the dark, making the road free for them to ride on. However, the headlights where shining on the road, and not into the car, thus the inside of the car was complete dark, but for the glow-in-the-dark buttons that were necessary to drive a car safely. Also, those buttons strengthened to Romantic air in the car, as they made all the more clear that they were alone, riding in a car, in the dark.

And she would look outside her window, and admire the night, the mystic power that it held over the forest, and its inhabitants. She would feel happy, delighted, content, she would feel so much in love, and so excited. There would be no stopping her excitement, her love for everything around her, the mood, the car, the headlights, and the little glow-in-the-dark lights that give the car so much more feeling. And of course, that what gave all those things a meaning, the reason that all this was so obsessively exciting, intoxicating and addictive. Her love, her life, her everything and more, her husband to be, her fiancée, Saotome Ranma.

Yes, and then he would startle her from her intense looking outside. She would be wearing a short leather skirt, a daring black leather top, with a leather jacket around her shoulders. He would put his hand on her left knee, gently stroking it. She would feel the warmth surging from his hand though her legs, ending in her heart. She would breathe warm, warmer, and put her own hand on his, as making sure that his hand would be staying there. And she wouldn't knock him senseless for doing something perverted. Because it simply wasn't perverted. They are perverted in their room, when it's much more a point of pure lust then anything romantic. And then, and then she would turn her face to his, and he would do the same, and they would look at each other, and know it's time to make a stop, and then, then she would allow him to be perverted. And aaah yes

Akane suddenly started. _Where am I, who what where?._ She looked around, and saw the room where she had dozed off. She noticed with a little wickedness her left hand resting between her legs. Hmm, maybe her dream was ruddily interrupted, but waking up from a dream, into another dream made it all that more pleasant. There just was no stopping this dream. And soon, very soon, they would have their car, and they would drive alone, on a lonely road in complete darkness. And he would put his hand on her knees, and she would be heated up by that one move, and then she'd want him to pull over, and then they would do, what they were doing so much here.

'_so__ perfect_' Akane reasoned. It took her a while before realising something was amiss. _Where's Ranma_?. She scanned the room, looking for a sign of life, if acceptable, a sign of Ranma, but she couldn't find one. She hopped off the table, and started searching. After a minute or two, she sighed not having succeeded in finding him she concluded that he's probably back in that one chamber, that despite its overwhelming and magnificent nature, has a disgusting use. Namely: enabling Ranma to create a "brother" of him, and sending him off to that imaginary world.

She sighed heavily, her good mood completely ruined now.

"ow well, guess I'll be alone for some time then." She grinned, which was a mean feat, considering the situation. "well… since no one is guarding the kitchen now, let's take a peek inside." She dashed of to the kitchen, intended on making Ranma something delicious when he returned.

next:

Wild Horse's Run

First move

Duds

Three of spades


	2. Move 1 Three of Spades

WILD HORSES RUN

First move

Duds

three of Spade

He stood on the eighth floor, looking out of his window. Soon revenge would be his. They had signed their death wish when they touched Akane. There would be no forgiveness, no speech no nothing, just killing them all, and take Akane far far away, where no one would be able to find her.

He turned away from the window, looking at the mess in his chamber. Since Akane was gone, he hadn't found the urge to clean up his mess, there was no use in it anyway. It was for Akane that he'd clean his room; it was for her that he lived. Cleaning was part of living, so as long as Akane wasn't at his side, there would be no cleaning.

Ranma shook his head. 'What sort'a crap are ya thinking Saotome? Get a grip'. He cleaned, because there was no power left in him. As long as there was no Akane, there was no power, only power to safe her, and that was what he would do now; safe her. He hadn't even told her how he felt, god damn it.

He grabbed the ramen boxes, and threw them somewhere in a corner. The okonomiyaki cases and hamburgers packages soon followed, and under them, his Martial art outfit lay. Well, martial art outfit, the one he had used mostly when training: a red shirt, with black pants. He grabbed the clothes; put them on, throwing his other clothes on the couch. He walked sturdily to the door, fully intended to kill were necessary. However, before leaving the little room, he took one glance at it. He would miss this room, he'd really do, and that was strange. Never had he a place that belonged to him, and then suddenly, he was a part of the Tendo Family. It was hard to part from it, but it was necessary. And now he'd have to part from this room too. But when all this was over, he and Akane would live together, in a room just like this one. Only bigger, with much more rooms like this one. And also two or three rooms, that were slightly different. It would have kiddo wallpaper, and colours kiddo's liked.

Ranma shook his head. '_Clear the mind, you got a fight coming, concentrate_'. He took one last nostalgic look at the room, sighed, and then closed the door.

Ranma looked up, and up, and up. 'That's one tall building'. He shaded his eyes with his right hand, averting the sun that shone in his eyes as he watched the height of the building. Ranma took one deep breath, and entered the building.

"Can I help you sir?" The receptionist was a nice courteous girl.

"Yes, I am looking for the president" it was hard not to sound mad at her, and seemingly, seeing the girls sudden frightened look, he had failed to answer her normally.

"I… I don't think,… , I can help you" she gulped, and stared into Ranma's eyes, afraid of what he might do next.

Ranma inhaled deeply, and suddenly rammed his two hands on the desk, and stared threateningly at the girl. She had nothing to be afraid of though, he'd only hit her, when she wouldn't tell her where her boss was.

"Look lady, this guy kidnapped my girl, you'll tell me nicely where the fat bastard is hiding, or I'll make you tell me" The girl pondered some seconds, before quickly squealing the place's placement.

Ranma nodded quickly thanks, and rushed over to the mentioned stairs.

Ranma didn't expect people to just let him pass. The receptionist probably already had warned security. But with a little luck, he'd be able to get Akane, and get out before they had time to react. He finally arrived at the right floor.

He looked around, and saw three white doors, and two green plants. He ran to the middle door, opened that one, accelerated as he opened the next door, and the door after that one, and suddenly he was in the office of the president.

"What the…"

Ranma ignored the man, and looked around for Akane. He didn't saw her in the room, only saw another white door.

"Guards, guards… Help"

Ranma still ignored the man. Although his urges to kill this man were great, he wouldn't kill him if it wasn't necessary. He didn't want a murderer sticker on him, and it'd be a waste of his time anyway; time was short. In three steps, he reached the white door, opened it, and saw a bedroom. On the bed he saw Akane. She only had a black lace bra and a black lace panty on. Her wrists and feet were tied together sturdy with a rope. The view of her abused body made his brains cook. He had to use all his will power, not to turn back and cruelly torture the man to death. Though she had many wounds, she was conscious. As soon as he entered, she started yelling his name and cried, telling him she didn't want too, that she was only for him, but that he…. That he…

The sobbing and tearing made her words drown, which made it almost impossible for him to understand what she was saying. He didn't care at the moment anyway, all he cared for was her alive, in his arms, somewhere far away. He ran to her, with one quick move tore the robes around her feet and wrists, lifted her up, and tried to pull her in a run. However, before he could do something, she collapsed on his chest.

"He took… I tried, but he took it" he looked around, looking if security already had arrived. Finding no one; he took her by the shoulders, and stared into her eyes.

"What, what did he took" He wanted to soothe her, make her tears go away, but the moment didn't let him. The adrenaline in his blood didn't let him. Holding her shoulders, he shook her unintentional.

"He took" she looked at his eyes, his pleading eyes that asked for her to answer. "He took my virginity" she said eventually. And with that, Ranma's world stopped. He had expected it, sure, but for the good of this operation tried to ignore that thought. He knew that with such a thought, he'd certainly kill the bastard president that had kidnapped his wife. And so, as soon as he came to his senses, his hand was blooded, and before him was the president of the building, dead, with a hand made hole in his stomach.

He backed away from the body, trying to deny the blood on his hands.

"No… no, what have I done?" he shook his head, not wanting to be a murderer. Then he heard the intercom.

"Sir, are you alright? Security is coming". This brought him back to the real world. He frantically looked around, searching Akane. Finding her still crying in the room, he ran to her, grabbed her hand, and ran. She followed, not knowing what else to do.

Ranma ran, crossed the room between the office and the hall, and looked at where the stairs and elevator entrance were placed. He tried to make it to the stairs, but before he reached those, the elevators opened, and a man with a gun stepped out of the elevator. Having his gun ready, Ranma had no time to react, and thus he could shoot thrice. Two misses, one hit, in Ranma's arm.

Ignoring the pain, he pulled his fist back, and with an enormous speed, crushed his fist into the man's face. The disgusting sound of the skull breaking, giving entrance to his fist sickened him, but there was little time to care about that. He pulled his fist back, and let the man drop in the elevator. He then opened the door to the stairs, and descended as fast as he could, Akane close following. He looked back, making sure that she wasn't accidentally hurt by the bullets. Seeing she was alright, he quickly resumed descending, till someone, in what he recognised as a ninja outfit, stopped them. He directly made a battle stance, and prepared for combat, which was hard with the bullet in his shoulder.

The fight was tough, fast and furious, and also uncomfortable having no space on the stairs, and having a wound in his shoulder. Ranma mostly dodged and ducked, trying not to get hit, till a kick hit him full in the stomach. He was sent flying into the wall. The wall couldn't hold the power with which Ranma was stomped into the wall, and broke. The wall was also the wall connecting the inside of the building with the outside.

Ranma flew through the wall, and descended rapidly from the 18th floor. He tried to manage it so, that he wouldn't land on his back. But the ninja followed him through the wall, and was kicking him while he descended.

He looked at the hole, and saw Akane trying to reach for him, screaming, and probably crying. He thought he saw her jumping after him, but he wasn't sure, because he then had landed on the ground with a heavy thud. Everything went black.

'_Akane__… I love you'_

Ranma tore the green diamond from his forehead, vigorously. He hated the thing, hated it for its magnificence and soothing when looked into, hated it for its deception, because, despite the soothing and warm feeling it gave you when you looked at it, it could do such cruel things with your mind. It was all the more frustrating that, whenever he saw a brother of him dying, that directly afterwards the pain would dissolve just by looking in the diamond. Really dissolving, going away, like nothing. And, as long as he looked in it, everything was right and perfect, but when looked away from, feelings of guilt spread over him. How could he feel so good, when someone so close, almost a clone to him dyed?

He threw the diamond against the wall with all his might, knowing that as soon as he'd leave the chamber, the diamond would magically centre itself in the room anyway. He collapsed on his hands, sweating, panting and moaning. Besides mentally being a burden, it also left him always breathless. It took a lot of his ki, and afterwards took a lot of him, having to concentrate immensely on the given show. He didn't have to control or direct the brother. He was a complete man on himself, only connected to him by their ki. And so through that, he could follow his brothers' adventures. However, to see where the mistake lay, he had to concentrate hard on what was happening, so that afterwards, he could write down perfectly what happened.

Ow well, it was done, and that alone made him happy. Sure it stung that he saw his brother dying. But now he could be with Akane, and away from the dreams.

He opened the big green doors, to once again enter the big greenish chamber. He looked around, hoping that Akane would somewhere be around. With a little disappointment noticed she wasn't in the room. Then again, usually when he was away, she would use the kitchen, so that's were she was probably now. She always tried to make something edible for him when he returned from a session. He had helped her, in not trashing the kitchen. Ow well, some things never change, he guessed.

So, what to do now? He could start making that stupid report directly, but he didn't really feel like doing that, so decided to indeed not do that. Instead he decided he'd look around for Akane. He really needed her presence right now. He sniggered. He never thought he would think such thoughts 3 months or so ago.

'_Anyway, where to find Akane?_' that was a stupid question. He knew perfectly well where she was, and that frightened him. She may have changed, but her cooking didn't. Past months experience made him believe that Akane's poor cooking was actually a complete entity on its own, something like her swimming. But how to get rid of it, and actually, why getting rid of it? The cooking and swimming were part of Akane, and he… well… he. Ranma scratched his head. Well, he guessed he loved everything about Akane, even her miserable cooking and her drowning swimming. Then again, a few cooking lessons might not hurt.

He unbuttoned his red shirt, and made his way to the kitchen. It wasn't hard to reach the kitchen without warning Akane. The complete 'house' was padded with carpet, safe the bathroom, and the kitchen, which had very cute little green tiles. He had seen such kitchens before, in books that showed Western style kitchens, and knew well enough that such kitchens were thought of as beautiful and expensive. For him, it was something that produced food, and made him able to prepare the food, and that was all that mattered to him.

When, for the first time, he found food in the refrigerator that shouldn't be there, he was… aghast. Sure, he wasn't a wonder when it came to physics, but even he knew that food shouldn't materialise just like that in their refrigerator. So, after getting around the shock, he had researched the refrigerator, nevertheless found nothing out of ordinary. Okay, he had no idea how refrigerators were build, but the machine didn't look any different then the one he was used to. So, there were two options. One: little dwarves came, and put food in the refrigerator. That was actually impossible, since he had guarded the refrigerator one complete day, and didn't see anyone refilling the refrigerator. But when he opened it, he found new food in it. So, the second option was the only available one: magic. Not that it surprised him; on the contrary, it was the most reasonable explanation for it. Hey, it wasn't as if he hadn't had his share of magic.

And thus, they accepted the refilling of the refrigerator with joy, it was nice it refilled, otherwise they'd die from starvation, and wonder.

Akane looked at her creation, and that was a mean feat, considering the sight and smell it provided.

"Aaah, what have I done wrong now? I followed Ranma's exact instruction, and still it comes out completely wrong" she put her finger against her chin, and tried to see where everything went wrong. She grabbed the salt, which had a nameplate saying "sugar", and sighted '_Why must they make salt and sugar in the same colour? I mean, the only thing it does is confuse people_'. She held the shaker of salt tightly in her hand, intending to crush it.

"You might want to let that innocent jar live. Know the food replenishes itself automatically, but dunno 'bout kitchen stuff" Ranma said leaning against the doorframe, looking as self-assured as he always is.

"Well… this jar is everything 'cep... I mean, except innocent. It let me use this instead of sugar" she pointed at her creation. Ranma scratched his head, looking a little unsure at the… well… what to call it? Entity…?

"Sooo… ye'r saying that the only thing that went wrong, was mistaking salt for sugar?"

"Yeah, ain… isn't that obvious? I mean, everything is alright, except the taste" Akane said proudly, but still somewhat angry.

"Sooo, it actually was meant to… ehm…_'look like something that escaped from the sewers being radioactive'_ look like that?"

"Well… maybe not exactly" she looked at her creation for a minute or so. She grabbed the plate and doused the whole thing (there was no other word Ranma found more appropriate) in the – also magically emptying itself – trashcan.

"Anyway, how was your trip?" Ranma looked dumbfounded at her. '_What the hell? Since when does she throw her stuff away like that, without even trying to poison me?_'. "uhm… not bad I guess, well… not including the dying part and all, and you being ra… and of course the fact that you jumping after me… actually" suddenly Ranma leaned heavily against the doorframe, and descended to the ground, looking somewhat crestfallen.

"Actually… It was again a nightmare… none of them is "not bad" every one of them, is horrible, the one more then the other, but…" Akane rushed to Ranma, sitting on her knees looking at him, savouring his skin with her soft hands, softly, gently.

"shhh… everything is alright…" Akane knew what would come, tears probably. Very unlike Ranma, he indeed cried because of it. Sure, it was nice to see how he opened up to her, to let her see his weaker side. But still, seeing her love and life in such pain, made her want to burn this place, destroy this place… it made her lethal for the one who did this to him. Not only was he forced to see his "brother" die, but also every story ended tragically. And it pained him, pained him greatly, and she – though really not wanting too – could do nothing except accept it. This was, for all they know, the only way to get out of here.

However, she had been thinking of something lately. They were here for about… 2 months or so. And, except the trips to his brother's demise everything was fine here. They had all the luxury they needed, all the food they needed, everything anyone would want was right here. And even without all that, the most important thing in her life was her, Ranma Saotome. Even if they had to live in a hole in a tree, if she was with Ranma, she would be happy. So, she was happy, here, because Ranma was here. So why would they want to get out? They where happy, weren't they? And if there was no need to go, then Ranma didn't have to suffer all those things. Yeah, that was it… she sighted, she knew that wasn't the answer, but… but, she couldn't bear to see Ranma like this. It had to end… she didn't know how long Ranma could take this.

She looked at her love, and saw him looking in the distance. He probably was trying to not cry. Well… he'd already failed; the light being reflected by a single tear on his cheek betrayed the presence of more tears to come. Till now, he had never succeeded in not crying, no matter how cool and uncaring he behaved. As soon as something, anything reminded him of those sessions, he would break out crying. So, she wanted his pain soothed, the minute he was out of there, thus asked every time how it was. He would try to act cool, like everything was going perfect, but eventually; he would stop trying, and start crying.

And she wouldn't accept his pain no more

"Ranma… I've been thinking" Ranma turned his face to her, his eyes wet from holding back his tears, which enforced the already sad look he had.

"You know… we don't have to go" Ranma sighed, he had expected that. She had proposed this alternative multiple times before. And every time he would come up with the argument of:

"You know we can't do that… everyone we know and everyone we care about lives in Tokyo" but now, she had a counter argument.

"So what…I mean. Who tells us that if we get out of here, we'll go back to Tokyo, heck, who says we'll get out of here? I mean, the only thing that said this is the way to get out of here is that little voice in our head… literally a little voice in our head".

"We've still gotta try…" Ranma looked a little irritated. She knew it was a bad timing to confront him with this now. He felt bad, really bad, on the verge of crying even, but she didn't feel like wasting every other cosy moment they had together. And besides, talking about this got his mind somewhat of the sadness.

"Why…? So you can hurt yourself even more, for what…? Nothing?" oh, she hated to discuss these things with Ranma, and hated to be so dead serious about it. She was always so serious, and being so close to Ranma, he didn't give her a change to be serious. But now, she had to be serious, had to convince Ranma not to suffer anymore.

"For nothing?" his voice gained some octaves, as he spoke the word "for nothing? You say that all the pain, all the suffer I've gone through was for nothing? No chance Akane. I've been through all that, because I want out of here." Ranma looked at her, saw her tense up, as he yelled the words. He… he didn't want to scare her, didn't want to ever hurt her. But, the pain of the session, made him… touchy. "Sorry… I shouldn't've screamed at ya. But… we can't stop now. I've been through too much to give up now. I'll beat this – whatever it is – eventually, I promise. I can beat it, believe me. "

"But, why hurt yourself so much more, when there is only a little chance we'll get back to Tokyo?"

"Because I don't want to be no prisoner of this… thing. I don't want to be beaten by this thing. If we won't make it back to Tokyo, then though luck, but at least we'll be out of this thing"

"But…" Akane wanted to interrupt, she didn't want him to suffer anymore… she hated it, hated it so much. It brought tears.

"Sorry Akane… I'm gonna go to bed, I feel tired" she softly mumbled an "ok" as he left.

Maybe… maybe not everything was perfect here. These discussions were also present. While not very frequent, they certainly had them. Why had Ranma the need to always be so damn chauvinistic about these things? I mean, they were clearly dealing with powers beyond powers he had ever seen before, so there was no shame to admit defeat. But still he had to fight on, still he wouldn't accept that he had lost this battle, and stay here with her.

Suddenly a realisation struck here. Maybe, just maybe he didn't want to be here with her, maybe he wanted to be somewhere else, somewhere away from here. '_Ow__ no, please let that not be true, I… I wouldn't survive something like that. Gods please, let this not be tru_e'. She – for a second or three – just sat on the kitchen floor, staring in the distance. '_Calm yourself girl. That's just a hasty conclusion based on nothing… but still'_. She looked at the kitchen, harbouring everything she used to create Ranma's failed dinner. She really didn't felt like giving it another try, thus she left everything behind, and went out, heading for the bathroom. Somehow, she needed a hot long soak in the tub.

Ranma couldn't sleep. That on itself was no surprise. As soon as he'd sleep, nightmares would come, and steal his sleep from him. Also, the fact that the dialog with Akane didn't went so well, ate at him. Actually, he didn't come here to sleep in the first place. He just needed to think, needed to sort his thought out, and in the first place, needed to cry. And so, he sat on the bad, back leaning on the wall, looking at the red warm looking wall. A beautiful wall, a wall that gave such a cosy and warm feeling, a homey feeling. Like the feeling the diamond gave, he hated it. And at the same time, he loved it. But not for its magnificence, but solely for the fact that this wall had witnessed countless beautiful moment Akane and he had.

He remembered, when they first arrived here, both of them were scared out of their wits. But, back then, they already knew they loved each other. And so, they could find shelter and peace in each other. They had no idea back then, that there was such a beautiful soft bed awaiting them, so they just hid under the table in the centre room. How he remembered it so vividly, and he would never forget it, because… it was their that both of them took that one thing that could only be taken once.

- Flashback -

"Ranma, where… where are we?" Akane was scared, and she was not the only one. He didn't like to admit it, but he also was scared. Not… much, but still scared enough to be pissed. He could fight enemies, could fight everything he saw, but "things" that just transformed him like that, were, as far as he knew, not really fightable, this because he simply couldn't see it. He wanted something to come out, and challenge him, but nothing did. So, just to make sure nothing would hurt Akane. He'd choose to hide under the table. Strange that was. He never thought of himself to be such a coward. Just hiding under a table like some scared little kid, it was pathetic. But he was here, hiding under this table, just because something might be out there, something he couldn't see, something he couldn't kick or smash. God he hated this.

"Ranma, where are we?" she asked the same question again, but he had no idea. How was he supposed to know? Something told him that something like this was bound to happen. Well, not like this, but something alright. Then again, the adventure had ended, so he thought. But still, he had the feeling it wasn't done. Firstly because both of them had such altered looks. Not that they were unrecognizable, but they certainly had changed, and secondly… he had an instinct for coming trouble. And this instinct told him that this adventure was everything but finished.

And so they ended up here. They had "materialised" in the middle of a room. Both of them had no idea where they were, and both of them were too scared to actually go and examine the place. Akane because she was scared out of her wits, Ranma because he also didn't trust the place (if something invisible can transform us here, some invisible might still be here, and try to harm us), and otherwise because he didn't want to endanger Akane.

And thus, they crawled under the great golden tables, hiding from whatever could be here. And under those tables it happened. The darkness fell, but strange enough, there was still light under the table. Just enough that you could scarcely see colours, but not much more. The ground was soft, the air was warm, and the place they ertr was cosy. They held each other tightly, not daring to let go.

"Ranma" Akane asked him frighteningly.

"Yeah?" he tried to sound assured, tried to give Akane something to count on, tried to not look like a coward.

"What are we going to do?" Akane looked at him. He couldn't see very well, but he knew she was looking at him.

"I have no idea" still sounding very assured of himself.

"o- Okay" Akane was scared; he could feel her trembling in his arms "please, hold me. I'm scared"

"Well well. This can't be. The future wife of Saotome Ranma can't be such a scary cat" he tried to say it jokingly, to lift the tense mood.

"Stop that Ranma" he could just feel her smile. "Okay then…I'm not scared"

"That 'a girl. Just relax. Everything will be alright. No one can defeat Saotome Ranma, and I'll let no one hurt ya, so don't worry. Besides, ain't like you can't kick some but here and there yourself." The feeling of her soft muscles relaxing in his embrace felt good, very good. It was indeed a good thing, he thought, having learned that complimenting Akane always got better results then actually insulting her. Indeed, insulting was… in a way attractive. It was a strange way for him to communicate. Compliments were something he wasn't used to though, having a father who wanted to push him as far as he could, so, never giving him that much compliments. But compliments apparently loosened some things in Akane. And well… he couldn't say he was 'against' those things. More appropriately, he craved for them, so compliments were necessary. After some times even, they gave him a strange satisfaction, seeing how Akane just began to glow when he said something nice to her.

This was all so strange, so bizarre, and so good at the same time. Here he was, in a place he never saw before, a place he was… and it was hard to admit it, but a place he was afraid of. It was dark, very dark. He could see from under the table that the room was lighted, but only scarcely. The scarce light rays that made it under the table only prevented them from bumping into one another. Also, it wasn't cold; on the contrary, it was warm, very warm so he unbuttoned his shirt.

After having done that and Akane again leaned on him, he felt her soft touch of her face on his chest surging through him. They never really had the change to really express their new found love for each other very well. Besides long kisses, and passionate hugging, they hadn't done anything. Neither one of them had said anything, but he half expected that – after their adventure – things would go more intense… well; he half hoped that they would go one step further in their relationship.

But no, of course, the gods didn't let them. As soon as one adventure was finished, both were being sent to some strange world, not knowing why, where or how.

And so, again a tear escaped Ranma's eyes, and a thought with that tear '_Damn… since when do I cry this much? I don't cry over such stupid things. So what if we couldn't have sex? It ain't like I'm some pervert or something. Damn, why'm so changed?_'

Akane looked up at feeling something wet in her hair. She touched her hair, and felt the moist spot. She tilled her head father up, and saw the source of the water. Ranma was crying, not much, and not with a grief stricken face, but nonetheless his eyes were moist, and the expression on his face somehow told her that he was trying to hold back his tears. She hadn't seen Ranma crying before, well not very much. Not more then 6 or 7 times, and most of them were tears of happiness. But here he was, the brave, undefeatable Ranma Saotome was crying.

She understood him though. She herself, while not much, was crying herself. This place freaked her out, and… well, somehow, she hated all this. Both of them had done so much, had worked so hard these last two months. And just when they thought it was over, just when they thought they could finally enjoy their Love, they were transformed here. Oh sure, she had hold, and kissed Ranma, but that was not nearly enough. She wanted to be alone with, wanted him somewhere far away, with no worries, no tasks, no nothing, just the two of them, totally free to do what they wish. But no, they even weren't entitled to that.

She softly caressed Ranma's cheek, and removed the moist that was on his cheek. At that Ranma smiled, and said, sniffing that he wasn't crying, and that… that was all he said before sniffing once more and then apparently out of nowhere exchanged his sniffing crying expression for a cocky smile. Akane couldn't help but giggle at that.

"Oh come' on there's no shame in crying." Akane said, holding his cheek softly.

"Me…? I ain't crying… err, I had something in my eye… it is ehm" he looked around him "I got a dusty in my eye… yeah, that's it. It's really dusty here, so, I got something in my eye"

Akane looked around, and saw to her amazement that the place actually was pretty much without dust, which was strange, because they were hiding like little scared cats under a table. And you'd expect dust under a table. Not that this was their biggest problem, but well, it kinda screws up Ranma's excuse to cry. Ranma, at Akane's inspection of their accommodations, did a second scan of the space they were using.

"Ehm… yeah well. Maybe you don't see much dust here now… but actually… it is err… invisible dust and err…" Akane turned to Ranma, interrupting her observing, and smiled at him. "You see… this dust actually has transported us and well… that's why we are under the table. To… defeat the invisible dust that has transported us…" the last words came out weakly, with an awkward smile, and some hair scratching. "And well… I kinda think the story's gotten a bit to abstract to be believable. Héhéh…" with a laugh, Akane jumped into Ranma's arms, and pinned him on the carpet, with a long deep kiss. Ranma received it eagerly, even encircling her, pressing her body harder against his, to make sure she wouldn't let go.

After 3 or so minutes, they both let go, and breathed deep. Kissing was new to them, kissing was good for them, kissing was heaven to them, kissing was also breathtaking, in more then one way.

"Ya know Akane. We really ought to learn to pay attention to breathing, and ehm… do that through our nose. I mean… Ain't much I know 'bout biology, but I do think that breathing was one of those really necessary things" he smiled, she laughed back.

Somehow, Ranma had done something that made the whole, "I'm so scared" mood seem so… gone. It was just there any more. Instead, she felt merry, she felt like laughing, giggling, she didn't know how she felt. She felt like a little school girl, in the sun, playing with Ranma in the grass. Rolling and doing innocent mischief. She couldn't help but suddenly laugh. Not a strange or weird laugh. But a laugh filled with pleasure, endless joyful pleasure.

'_Oh god.__ Why do I feel so merry? I still should be scared as hell. But for some reason, my stomach is so full of a sort of flying things_.' She looked at Ranma, and couldn't hold her laughter. '_This is so wonderful, I feel like flying, oh damn, Ranma… I want you'_

Ranma scratched his head, not understanding what the hell was going on. "Ehm Akane. Got not problem if you laugh like that, but err… what's so funny?", Ranma got only more laughter as answer. He felt twinges, little twinges really, of irritation. He couldn't see anything funny about the situation, so she had to be laughing with him, or at him. And the later was really not appealing. But, she laughed, and she had clearly fun, and for some reason, that was so much more important then his own need to be not laughed at. He looked around, and saw that still no one had joined them. And besides, there was no one around to feel ashamed for. So he just smiled at her, and felt getting high on merriness, just by watching here.

So through laughter's, Ranma asked Akane again, what was so funny. Again Akane just laughed little cute laughs, solely out of pleasure. Then Akane suddenly got a serious face, and looked straight at Ranma, a dead serious, glare that held Ranma's gaze perfectly. Ranma, who had been laughing with her, stopped abruptly, and looked straight at Akane, gulping. He saw as Akane lifted a finger at him, and slowly opening her mouth. "You" she said slow, and assured. "I love you". Then she jumped at Ranma like a little schoolgirl, and pecked him on his cheek. Ranma, not understanding the situation in the slightest, just complied with it, and received the pecks joyfully. Then suddenly, he got this really strange idea. So, he avoided the next pecks of Akane. Instead of kissing her right back, he hold his hands behind his back, and let himself stand in battle stance on his knees, under the table.

Akane cocked her head a little, and looked at Ranma. He suddenly, got instead of a merry joyful smile on his face, an assured cocky, also challenging smile on his face. And instead of being loose, he stood ready, in battle stance. She looked wonderingly at Ranma, hoping he would give her an explanation of what he was planning.

Ranma looked at Akane as she cocked her head, and looking questioningly at him. The face, the expression and those eyes, it was just too cute to bear, he couldn't hold himself, and jumped at her.

Akane eeped a little when she suddenly saw Ranma moving fast towards her. She, in reflex, immediately held her hands in defence, when she suddenly felt a quick fast brush of something warm and soft on her cheek. Slowly, she dropped her defence, and looked now in complete shock at Ranma. She lifted her hand to her face, and touched the spot where he had pecked her. Then suddenly, as lighting, she understood what they were going to play.

She planned her knees sternly on the soft carpet, put her arms behind her back, and placed one of her own cocky, by Ranma educated, smiles on her face, and watched Ranma intensely.

"This is a game I can win" she said cocky, and extremely sure of herself.

Ranma smiled his own arrogant, smile at her. "We'll see about that, now won't see, my love and life?

"Hmmm" Akane only gave a soft gently, but again oh so arrogant smug smile.

And then the battle began.

Ranma began like he always began a fight. Softly circling his enemy, searching for a weakness, searching for an opening. Akane, having learned some things from Ranma, did exactly the same. Both to hinder Ranma in finding any opening in her defence, and also looking for an opening in his. Well, there wasn't much defence of course. It was hard to form one, when you had both of your hands on your back. But Akane looked assured, will she win this battle? Who knows?

In the mean time, Ranma apparently had found an opening. He had stopped turning, and has his eyes eyeing his opponent with a glint in his eyes. What will happen? Will Akane be able to deflect Ranma's attack? Now, Akane has also stopped, looking at her opponent, looking both for an opening, and his plan to attack her. But, Ranma is keeping his attack low, and doesn't show the least what he is planning to do. Both stand before each other now, eyeing each other like preys. Both combatants have certain smiles on their face, both fully intending on winning.

Then, like lightning, Ranma jumps at Akane, but… he completely jumped the wrong way. Akane looked in wonder how her opponent completely jumped besides her. Not even moving, Akane watched her enemy with a question in her eyes. No wonder of course. Saotome Ranma of the anything goes Saotome School of martial arts has just jumped completely the wrong way. But then, in that moment of wonder, Ranma jumped from 2 meters beside Akane, to Akane's right cheek. And with one beautiful leap (but controlled, they were still under a table), he reached for Akane's right cheek, giving it a soft gentle peck. One – zero for Ranma.

Akane, as soon as she felt the wonderful feeling of Ranma's lips fading, reacted, by turning to her opponent, and attacking. And so the battle raged on. Akane was almost always in the attack, trying to give Ranma pecks, everywhere on his face. Ranma defended furiously, evading every peck she wanted to place on his face. Ranma apparently had a hard time doing it. Of course, having such nice pecks from the beautiful Akane, who wouldn't want those? But Ranma hold on, evading and ducking as much as he could. And while Akane was attacking, adjusting and steering her face to Ranma's face, Ranma gave her pecks also whenever he could. Some hit, some didn't. and then, Ranma began attacking, and the game was fast decided. Almost every attack Ranma made was a hit, and every frantically defence of Akane failed, her parries failing, she tried to attack back, which only gave her more pecks.

Slow losing ground, she found that she was nearing a wall. Her certain smile self assured smile stayed though, but was now more filled with gentle laughter, and chipper happiness. She did one last desperate attack, she gave the impression she would kiss his left cheek, but intending to kiss him on the right cheek. Ranma gave indeed the impression he would defend left, but she knew he would just as fast defend the right side, so, almost knowing that as soon as she'd attack he would jump right, she attacked left… and found herself pinned against the wall, with Ranma's lips full on her.

He moved his arms towards her face, and gentle stroke it as he kissed her deep hard, furious with a need greater then anything he ever had felt. He needed her, needed her more then anything in the world. The kiss they were sharing now, was so much more valuable then any victory he would receive on the battlefield.

And he wasn't planning to let it end. From her face, his hands went to the hem of her white blouse. From that point on his instinct, his every uncontrolled desire was taking over, and he was not alone in that action.

Akane places her hands above those of Ranma. Not that she wanted Ranma to stop tugging at the hem of her shirt, not at all. She wanted to make sure that Ranma's hands would stay there. Past experience learned that Ranma quickly concluded that he was in some way treating her not right, and he might conclude that now, which certainly wasn't really what she wanted this moment. Then slowly, she did more with her hands then just holding them. She ever so slowly, brought his hands under her white shirt – this all of course while they were still kissing like their lives depended on it. She had her eyes closed, but she could feel Ranma getting startled when she directed his hands under her shirt.

For a short while, there was a certain hesitation in Ranma. His tongue, mouth and lips were moving slowly unsure of what to do, and his hand stopped caressing and stroking her back. However, in no time, Ranma understood her message. He replaced himself – all the while holding that same kiss, and when necessary, breathing – so that Akane sat on his lap. Akane, while they moved, Akane had removed her hands from Ranma's – not before gently convincing those hands that they were expected to continue what they were doing – and placed them in his neck, so being able to kiss him harder, having a support.

Now sitting in a new position, Ranma was able to move his hands upwards on her back, which he thus did. Softly, slowly centimetre a centimetre he moved his hands upwards. Stroking, caressing, roaming her back. Her and there, he even kneaded her soft flesh on her back. And when he felt Akane reacting very eagerly to his movement – which wasn't hard to notice, when she began breathing hard in his mouth, he knew she really liked it – he kneaded and moved his hands longer and more intense. While Ranma's hands moved upwards, Akane's shirt did the same, and left her belly quite exposed. Another thing it did was getting very stretchy at certain parts – even more stretchy, the thing was already quite stretchy to begin with – so that Akane's breasts at one point were very noticeable for Ranma, the shirt being stretchy, and Akane getting very excited, already had made them quite clear for the young martial artist. But now that he was pushing her shirt backwards, they really began pushing in his chest, which excited him to no end. If it wasn't for the clasp he earlier discovered on her back, he'd believe she didn't have a bra on.

When Ranma reached Akane's neck, and so almost completely exposed Akane's belly and chest, and thus had the support he wanted; he began pushing his tongue, mouth, lips and his complete body even harder against Akane. Akane already having pushed herself against Ranma's with all her strength, was inspired to see if she could push herself even more intense against Ranma.

And so, under the table, in the middle of a room, a room in the middle of a sort of apartment, they made love to each other. Desperate love, loving love, craving love, anxious love. Love that was for so long held back by both of them. Their love, in both so stupidly strong, could only held back by but one force, the force of both their personalities. But their love did not falter, not ever. It had grown, grown, till it was immense. Being unbreakable from the beginning, it was now indestructible, immortal, and it wanted to be released.

-end of Flashback-

Ranma looked at the beautiful decorated ceiling in their room.

"Damn… now I'm excited again" he sighed, turned and looked in the mirror.

'_Hmmm… that was a night to remember_.' He smirked as he remembered something. '_Whoever was there at that moment, they would without doubt notice we were there. I had no idea Akane could scream that loud. Not only that, but both of us had more then once smacked our heads against the table. Well, after the second time luckily, we didn't care anymore if there was someone in there no or yes, we just needed room, and left from under the tables, and had fun in the middle of that big room_.'

And now, 2 months later, they are still were they began, not having moved an inch. Well, they had searched through their new home, but they still hadn't left it, or had discovered a way out. No, he was wrong, there was a way out. A sticking, rotting way out. A way out that was so disgusting, so screwed up, so everything he hated, that he… well… that he didn't think there existed something that he could hate more. Alright, it wasn't hard to imagine something that he would hater harder, but he didn't want to think such thoughts.

He scanned the room wearily, and idly wondered how long it was since he had slept. Well, it wasn't that long ago, maybe 12 hours or so. Not longer then Akane. Well… he didn't think he would sleep for 20 hours or so, not till his eyelids were too heavy to heave. Well… of course, in those 20 hours, Akane's help was in calculated. After each intercourse he would sleep in, heavenly. Problem was that when the nightmares came, and those can come soon, after an hour or so, sleep was disturbed and getting back to sleep was not possible anymore. He wouldn't be surrounded by the blissful embrace of heavenly pleasure brought by Akane's beautiful Body. Sure, the afterglow always hung for quite a long time, but even those weren't strong enough for the nightmares.

Luckily, he hadn't had much trouble with it when he was awake. That is, as long as he wouldn't daze away, and start daydreaming. But then again, he wasn't a daydreamer. He could practise his martial arts without any problem, could cook, could clean, could work, write and anything else without suffering from those horrible nightmares. Just as long as he didn't have to close his eyes, everything was alright. And when he had to close his eyes, he just had to hope that he was weary enough to not let those stupid nightmares wake him.

It had one bright side on it. This way, he had an excuse to enjoy Akane's love, and give his love to her, every time before he went to sleep. And damn, he still wasn't sated, not by a long shot. And as far as he could think, he'd never be. Akane was just the same. Every possible situation that was open for a pleasant intercourse was used for that pleasant intercourse. He knew that women were able to be nymphomaniac, but were males? Maybe he just had a great libido.

Another great thing was that situations like these, where they reach a disagreement, were quite rare. Actually, they only happened two times before. Both had the same subject "him not having to go through all these horrible things, and just staying here." He understood her, and he really appreciated the thought. But it was just impossible for them to stay here. For one, they just couldn't be disconnected to any other form of life for so long. Second, people would worry over them, and would be hurt over the fact that they suddenly disappeared. That, after actually just having returned from a rather strange adventure. No, they couldn't stay here, that was for sure. They need to go back. Besides, they missed some things here. Like the sun, like movies, and other means of entertainment. Sure, they had endless supplies of paper, pencils, food, water and all other such things they needed to live. But something as a television, or some dummies to train on, that was seriously lacking in this building.

And one last argument against it, and maybe the most important one for him. If he gave up, if he chooses to stay here, and not fight it any longer, he would be well and truly be defeated. And that wouldn't happen, not in a thousands years, Saotome Ranma wouldn't be defeated, not now, not ever. Even if his enemy was a strange looking building, with nice delicate rooms, and apparently never ending resources; he wouldn't lose. And somehow, he had to convince Akane that he was right. Because, Akane was now with him, so no one would defeat Saotome Ranma, Or Tendo Akane. Besides, it was he who went through it, wasn't it? Sure, it was sweet that she was so worried about him. But she needn't to worry about it so much. Sure, it bothered him to no end, made him feel sick, made him feel depressed, but heck, that just lasted till he saw Akane's bright chipper face. Their love was so much stronger then this depressing sad feeling. Besides, somehow, he had succeeded in thinking that all those "brothers" were little graphics of himself, and that all of them were playing in some weird bizarre adventure game. Which not, by far, meant that he would address them with "it". Somehow, while he could imagine them being nothing more then not living and thinking dolls, he still received their emotions, their feelings, and their thoughts. And for some reason, that left him with a certain bad aftertaste when he spoke badly of them. It was weird really. He could imagine them being nothing more then computer animated dolls, and still he didn't want anyone speak badly about them.

Ow well, he didn't feel like breaking his head over his own psyche. He'd better start doing something useful, like, looking what Akane is doing.

'_Okay, so Ranma was right after thinking it through. But still, I don't agree with him having to go through all that pain and misery. Isn't there a way I could take his place?_' Akane looked at the plastic yellow ducky that floated in front of her.

"What do you think ducky? Don't you agree with me? That Ranma is again to self sacrificing, believing in his endless ego that he could take all that?" Akane grabbed the plastic ducky out of the water, and stared with a diplomatic expression at it, as if really communicating with the fake sun coloured animal. She pressed the innocent ducky. The ducky heavily complained by making a sound that could be meant as a quack, but then more a quack of a demented, stoned drunk duck. Akane though accepted his answer gratefully.

"I knew you'd agree with me. Now if only I had any idea how to do that and if it wasn't so stupidly impossible for me to do that, I might just be able to replace his place. What do you say ducky?" Still staring at the yellow plastic, Akane again pressed the duck. Again it gave something that could've, in the mind of someone drunk stoned and dement, sounded like a quack.

"That is something interesting you mention there. Now if only I could make out what you actually say, it would be even more productive." Akane looked with piercing eyes at the duck.

"Anyway, next time he goes into that chamber, I'll force him to take me with him. Don't you think there must be a possibility for me to actually join Ranma in one of those sessions?" again, Akane gave the golden duck a squash. Again the Duck made exactly the same none – quacking sound.

"I thought as much. But you know ducky? I really want something, and that is me and Ranma somewhere, somewhere where no one, but really no one can find us, just the two of us, with no worries, no things to do, no adventures, just the two of us. And I've gotten part of my wish. I am somewhere, somewhere I don't even know, where no one will find us, where Ranma and I are all alone, and where we have all the time of the world. Problem is that part of it didn't come true. We are in an adventure, and we do have worries. And you know ducky, that's why I want Ranma to stop doing that. If he stops, then there will be no worries, there will be no adventure. Just the two of us, in this really neat place, where every place is a great place to… ehm…I don't know if you young duckies are supposed to know about these things." That last what said with a sort of wicked smile.

"Hmmm… you know you might try to come up with an agreement with Ranma" Akane looked confused at the ducky that just spoke. '_Weird_'. She made the confused look on her face seem stronger. "Really weird ducky. I've never heard you speak before". Somehow, Akane's confused look looked…confusing. "And you sound so much like my little sex toy." She smiled with satisfaction when she heard from somewhere a low grumble.

"Anyway" said the ducky eventually. "Ya really should try to find some agreement with that ... Ehm… kof sex … kof toy of yours." Akane smiled scurrility at the duck.

"What do you propose then, oh wondrous talking duck?" she said, with not the least hint of being not serious.

"You could ask him to put more time between every session. That way, he'll have more time to forget…err…and err… enjoy…" Akane suddenly got a serious shocked look on her face, as if just having heard the naughtiest thing that could possibly be.

"What do you say now ducky. You are far too young for such dirty thoughts." Akane punished the ducky by squashing it.

"But still. What you are saying isn't really that stupid. Good that I have you. I mean, Ranma would never even consider such an idea." Akane smiled gave the duck her perfet cute as ten buckets of plush bunnies smile.

"So you really think I got good ideas?" The ducky asked curiously. Akane nodded furiously.

"Without doubt. You are the smarted plastic bath ducky I've ever seen in my life. And I've seen quite some duckies"

"You've seen many duckies like me? Err… I'm not even going to ask. Anyway, so you'll also follow my next advice?" Akane smiled warmly, but also with a bit of grin at the corner of her mouth.

"Sure, as long as they are good, I'll follow your every advice ow wise ducky." At this, she grabbed the ducky, and lifted it above her head. She herself bowed her head down, making a very humble impression at the ducky.

"Good. Now, my advice to you is to let that poor Ranma, take a bath with you, and afterwards let him massage your muscles really good, 'cause he's craving to feel your soft white skin under his strong hands". Akane lifted her head, and looked in complete shock at the duck.

"But… but… is that really what you want me to do?" Akane asked in completely amazement at the duck she still held high above her.

"Yup" the duck said short and plain. Akane scratched her wet hair at this.

"But aren't advices mostly things you don't like? Or at least, something you wouldn't kill for?" Akane looked at the Duck hopefully.

"Huh…"? Dunno, I do know though that, that is a real good advice" the duck was really short, somehow not wanting to waste any time anymore.

"Okay. But I don't know where Ranma is though. Do you have an idea Ducky?" Akane again looked at the duck, with an almost genuine looking hope in her eyes.

"Ehm… yeah. You err… close those cute bright brown eyes of yours, that would make any man insane for love, if you look at them, as you just did."

Akane complied, and shut her eyes abruptly. She waited and waited, but felt nothing happening.

"Ehm… ducky, what do I do now?"

"Ehm… ehm…Ranma is having a little problem with his shirt. Just a sec." Akane smiled a full smile.

She now heard some rustling at her right. After some time, she thought she heard someone disrobing a shirt, and letting it fall on the ground. But she could be wrong of course. She had a great imagination. Then she thought she heard someone pulling a shirt over his head, and throwing that next to the fallen shirt. Still, it could all be in head. Weird, because now she was almost certain she heard someone sitting on something, and making a disturbingly loud sound with the stool he sat himself on. But, those sounds still could be imaginable. Then thought she heard someone pulling off his pants, and eventually, yes, throwing it on the heap of the clothes. Curious imagination she had.

Now her imagination was playing even more joyful tricks on her. She could've sworn that she felt the water softly ripping against her belly, as if… no kidding, but as if someone else was entering the bath. But whoever could enter her bath at this moment? To be certain she spread her legs, you never know what might happen, and it was always better then to have your legs spread. Huh? How strange, she felt something warm and soft against her legs, as if someone was coming near her, and touching her legs while doing that. The world was a really strange place to live in, certainly this one. Not that she minded, not at all. So just to be certain she was on the safe side, she spread her legs even wider, and pushed her breasts a little forward. It might just be her imagination, but hey, you never know, can't be safe enough.

Hey, this was insane, she felt someone softly touching her breast, which… oooooh, sent shivers down her spine. And then, if it wasn't enough, she felt someone's soft warm lips being pressed hard on hers. But she was ordered to have her eyes closed for as long as no one told her to open them, and since she was a very nice girl, she obeyed every command. And thus had her eyes closed, when he began playing with her body, like it was nothing more then a little sex toy.

next time:

Wild Horse's Run

First move

Duds

four of spades


	3. Move 1 Four of Spades

WILD HORSES RUN

First move

Duds

four of Spades

Ranma looked at his paperwork, while playing with his pencil. He had written everything, every little detail he remembered on these papers. It resulted in a nice bundle of 20 pages, telling exactly in the smallest detail he could remember what has happened in that one session. And if he wasn't 100 sure about something, he underlined it. and when he thought something was important, or something could lead to the answer, he'd press his pencil harder on the paper, so that it really showed.

20 pages full of words, letters, sentences, 20 pages of a story he hated. That was a lot of work spent in something he hated more then anything else. But he really wanted to get out of here, so writing these essays were really a necessarily.

Somehow, all this was, in some obscure dark way, funny. In school he'd never even bother to write 3 papers full to make an exercise. And now, here he was. willingly writing papers full of stupid dumb text, with a content he disliked more then anything. How funny was it to write a detailed rapport on how you died? Well, maybe not you, but someone very close to you. someone you hardly know, or have seen, and still having known him all your life. someone you knew every emotion of, someone who's bond with you is stronger then so many other bonds, so strong in a very special way. A strong bond, simply because they shared the same life force.

But… if worked hard enough on, a bond which maybe couldn't be destroyed, but certainly could be weakened. If he just imagined it all being a stupid game, a stupidly realistic game, then the bond was also nothing more then a game. There was a bond, it probably would never break, not for as long as he had to do all this, but the bond would be nothing more then a part of a game. And thinking that, the bond indeed was nothing more then a game.

But, he couldn't always consciously think of it as a game. As much as he tried to avoid it, without sleep he would eventually lose. So he slept as little as possible, but he slept nonetheless. And his subconscious wasn't really co-operating with his everyday conscious. Where his daily conscious could address this all as some foolish game, his subconscious couldn't, and thus did remember the sessions as they actually were. Cruel, horrible, painful, mind shattering, mentally unbearable… he couldn't think of a good adjective to describe it. the things he saw in his dreams, the feelings he felt were so uncanny deep that he sometimes wondered if he really was dreaming, and not just watching another sessions, but this time without the thought that it was all a game. No, dreaming was everything except dreaming. It were nightmares, in every sense of the word. Bad, cruel dreams that made him scared to sleep.

Scared… the great Saotome Ranma wasn't scared of anything… not true, he was afraid, dead afraid to sleep. And he wouldn't sleep as long as he didn't need to sleep. He wouldn't sleep, as long as he had full control over his thought and world. But he had need of sleep, and there was only one situation he could figure were he would be brought near sleep, and out of control over all his bodily functions. And that was making love to the woman he loved, Tendo Akane, or as she sometimes choose to say, Saotome Akane. It wouldn't put him directly to sleep, certainly not, luckily not. it almost always lasted more then an hour before they went to bed.

Every time he made love to her, he was in such a magnificent world. He felt like he was flying through heaven, as if every care in the world, every worry he head, every bad dream, everything negative force that he had in his body flew right away with the power of Akane's love. he couldn't think anymore, couldn't control anything. It was just his love with Akane's love, and the endless everlasting pleasure that came with it. and in that moment he could forget, and could go to sleep with the knowledge that everything was alright. That Akane was close to him, that she loved him, and that they shared a pleasure greater then anything in the world. Nightmares, worries, guilt feelings, all were minuscule in comparison to the pleasure and love he had then shared with Akane.

Sometimes even he could go to sleep without the endless pleasure that only Akane could provide. Only the knowledge that they shared so much made all his worries seem so stupidly little. However, that wouldn't be fun. It was much more fun to float in an endless heaven, then to just sleep in with the beautiful thought that he and Akane loved each other. Besides, that one time he fell asleep without making love, he had soon awakened. The nightmares hadn't then bothered him to such a great extent that he couldn't sleep. But as soon as he closed his eyes, and drifted to the other world, the love, though strong, wasn't strong enough to fight the horrible nightmares that came. And so, he had waken quite quickly.

That one time, Akane had slipped in the bathroom, and had kicked her head against the sink. It really wasn't that bad, but enough to make her cry a little. He had thought that a little insult would lift the tense mood, and well… slipping in the bathroom… that was really… well, not stupid. But damn, it certainly was clumsy. He was wrong apparently, since it had only made Akane angry at him. knowing that as soon as she would start insulting back, which she didn't actually, he himself would start throwing more insults at her. So, he went to the bathroom to grab something that was cold. He came back, and put the thing on her head.

And then, just seeing her smile so cutely at him, made the urge to comment on her temper float away. He made himself comfortable at the end of the bed, where her head lay, and began massaging her head softly. Her soft groaning in pleasure was really making him giddy with love, and also a bit drowsy. He didn't really remember well what she said precisely, because he really was tired and weary, but he did remember that she had apologised for not really being able to love him to sleep. He had just smiled, closed his eyes, and fell in ,a minute or so, beautiful sleep. Then a half hour or so later, he awaked with a jerk. Luckily, Akane, who was still lying with her head in his lap, wasn't awaked by his jerk. He then softly, left the bed, and went to work.

And now, here he was again, with a 20 page long rapport on how he had died. And he thought it had paid of. He was almost certain that he knew what was wrong in that session. He had already noticed it, when he was writing that particular part of the story. But past experience told that it was really better to write the complete story, before pulling conclusions.

Once he had thought that something was so obviously wrong, that he had stopped writing, and concluded that he knew the error. There could be nothing else so more obviously wrong then this. So, he had taken that one error in his head, and started the next session with it. of course, it didn't work out then, simply because it wasn't an error. That one thing he thought was wrong, wasn't wrong at all. He just had remembered it wrongly. And in his bliss to have found the answer so quickly, he forgot to make sure it was absolutely wrong. If he had done that, he'd notice that his desk was indeed in the right corner of the room, as his sessions had showed him, and not in the left corner as he thought it was. he never really new afterwards what the real error was in that session. Though he was very curious, it wasn't necessary anymore. And if there was one thing he wouldn't do, then it was writing those stupid stories for no reason.

Actually, the whole story was only 19 pages long. The last twentieth page was spend on writing that one situation in really stupidly high detail, with every, but really every atom he could remember of the session. If there was a little dust somewhere on the floor, then he had written it on that last paper now. Indeed; that little dust could be the answer to his problem. If he was certain that didn't saw that little dust before, then it was a pro-argument that something was wrong. Of course, he wouldn't base his conclusions on a little dust, but they helped him very much into finding it. the writing of the suspected error was actually something he did out of himself. There were no past experience that told him to do this. He just really wanted to get out of here, and well, it had really proven helpful sometimes. Thrice, he had found out that he was wrong, so writing those last detailed reports was really necessary.

Another thing was the fact that writing those extremely detailed reports on the error was helpful in creating his next session.

It was so, that every time he had found an error in a session, he had to remember it, and use it in the next session. This was because, the error in the session was a proof that the machine, and it actually wasn't a machine, was not really good with that sort of things. The machine was not perfect, that was his ticket out of here.

Since the machine, he just called it that, regardless of the fact that it actually wasn't a machine, made an error somewhere, he proved to him that he was lacking perfection in that point. So, in the next session, if he concentrated on that particular spot, that particular imperfection in the previous session, the machine might make another mistake. Actually… it made a mistake every time he concentrated on the previous error.

The last error the machine had made was that he only had ascended to the sixth floor, and when he had jumped out of the window, he had jumped from the seventh floor, meaning that his weak point were tall buildings. The, you could call it a dream, Ranma had created then, had a tall building, and the machine showed it wrong, so the conclusion was that it wasn't good with tall building. So, in the next session he had to dream about tall buildings, very tall buildings. He knew that was his weakness, and that he would make another mistake, if he just concentrated on them.

When he first thought of that theory, he had scratched his head. Wouldn't it just made another mistake in tall buildings? But further reading in a diary they had found there, showed that the machine, which was actually something alive, with a conscious mind, wanted to correct that imperfection. Problem was, that while he was correcting the error of tall buildings, he would make another mistake. That mistake was then in again something he really wasn't good at. Since he was so busy working on the last mistake, namely the really tall buildings, he couldn't concentrate on his other lacking points, and thus made another mistake, one which was bigger, more obvious then the last one.

So indeed, it was easier and easier every time he did a session. However, if he had missed an error, and concentrated on something else, he could start from the scratch. Since he didn't dream of the real error, the machine didn't have to correct the error, since he just wasn't dreaming of it. and so, the machine could make a perfect world for him, without any error, well, it probably had an error, but this time a really small one, because it had all his attention to make his dream-world a perfect dream-world.

And a dream-world it was, literally. The world wherein he always had to day was indeed an honest to kami dream. he machine that he used, was a machine built to make dreams. He himself would never have figured such a thing out. He might have had an idea, but since it really didn't matter to him, he wouldn't have spend any attention to it. however, he had read a certain book.

-Flashback-

"Have you found anything yet Ranma?" Akane stood in the room where they appeared yesterday. The green carpeted room, with green tables at both sides, and a soft nice green wall, with forms and variations in colours in it. a beautiful room. But that was the last things she wanted to think of right now. What she wanted to know was, where is Ranma, and had he found something.

the day after their… entrance, they decided to search the place through, looking for some clues as to where they were, and if possible, a front door, so they could get out.

After walking 2 hours or so, closely together and observing every room for a certain danger, they concluded that there was no danger at all. Well, not one they could see. They first found a sleeping room. It was at the end of a short hallway, and had a beautiful richly decorated door. They softly had opened it, and peeked inside. As soon as they noticed that there was no one moving in the room, or anyone making a sound, they opened the door a bit further, and scanned the whole room. No one moved, no one said anything, so it must be safe, and they entered.

It was a beautiful room, Akane remembered, and it still is of course. But the first time entering that room was… strange. The wall, the roof, the floor everything in the room was richly decorated, with beautiful lines, shapes, and patterns. And not only the look all those things gave was beautiful and rich, but the material in which they were made was so delicate, expensive looking. She had seen some things, Ranma had seen an awful lot of things, but both couldn't help to let their mouth drop open, and stare in awe.

In the end, they concluded that the room was very small, and hardly had any furniture. Well, that was what Ranma had said anyway. She was still in awe over all the richness and beauty of it. she had then looked at Ranma, not irritated – she didn't think that was possible after their night – but certainly a bit weary.

"what are you talking about. The bed is made from the most expensive looking wood I have ever seen, and is seriously decorated with all sorts of gold and silver, together with other expensive looking materials. And the drapes on the bed. My guess is that only those are as expensive as our complete house."

Ranma looked at the bed, and cocked his head somewhat.

"yeah well, it stays a bed, and damn small for the two of us to sleep in…"

Akane turned to Ranma, and suddenly smiled a wicked smile.

"hmmz… Why do we need so much room then dear? We just sleep on each other" she smiled, and almost laughed after that. Sure, the last adventure had loosened her somewhat. But, the night before had really made some things in her stir. She would never, ever dreamed that she'd make this comment. This was so not her, and still she liked it. sounding perverted had something to it, that she couldn't explain. She would try this more often in the future.

Ranma also seemed eager to experiment a little. He scratched his head, and after a couple of seconds finally answered her.

"Well… we'll need a lot of room if we're gonna try out all those things that are in my head" he had said that with a smile that only said confidence; arrogance; self assured; and everything that looked like it. it had lasted for about 6 seconds, before he began trembling, and stuttering.

"ehm… ehm, I… I really have no idea where that came from… please.. ehm, I really ain't no perv… please don't hit me…" he said, looking at her like a scared little dog, awaiting divine punishment.

Akane indeed felt something stirring in her when he had said that. There was something that resembled anger. Indeed anger at Ranma for making such a comment – but she wasn't irritated with him, just felt twinges of anger - . Then there was wonder. Ranma, the macho jerk, would never could've said something like that. Although it is actually more then logic. If he was so self assured in everything else but love, why couldn't he be that when he was actually in love. Anyway, besides anger, and wonder, there was also something else, something she, more out of a habit then anything else, tried to hide. That feeling insisted that she'd smile. Not a normal smile, but a kind of pervert smile she thought. Maybe not really a pervert smile, that'd be more wicked and daring. It was more a smile that her love for him forced on her – strange, really strange that was.

And with that smile, the feeling wanted to heat her up, because it believed that, that comment of Ranma stirred some desires in her.

She closed her eyes, gave a long exaggerated sigh, and then looked at Ranma, and smiled cutely at him, saying not a thing. Ranma backed away slightly.

"A… Anyway, you're right. Room is beautiful, real beautiful, now err… let's go, visit the rest yes… visit other places, and hope they don't err… do stuff with my mouth, and my…well… lets'go."

And so they went over to the next door in the hallway, namely the kitchen. And well, as said before, old habits die hard, and she had to bump Ranma on the head, hard. She didn't really felt that much anger, or irritation over the comment he had made then. But still, he could show a little respect for her attempts to make good food. A comments like "okay, this room is off limits for ya. We wouldn't want to wreck a total stranger's kitchen now, would we?", didn't really showed any respect for said attempts.

Anyway, like the room, the kitchen was also richly decorated, with green tiles on the floor and the wall. Beautiful expensive looking tiles, that made magazine kitchen look like cheap knock off of this room. The kitchen had everything they needed, expect a washing machine. They had to do wash everything with their hands. And there was also no electricity in the kitchen. The oven was warmed with something besides electricity, she didn't know what, and their cooking plates where simple gas plates. All was richly decorated, and all expensive looking, but it still would've been nicer if their was some kind of modern stuff here.

After the kitchen, they had visited the bathroom. It had a BIG bath, also a green bad, decorated with lines and figures of gold. The taps were, as the decorations on the bath, golden. It was a strange combination, green with gold. But then the colour green used was just so chosen well, that it all mixed perfectly. The sink was, as the bath green, with golden decorations, and golden taps.

Luckily, the shower wasn't golden, but just sort of green soft metal. If they wanted to hold the douche, they would do a lot of heaving with heavy objects. The toilet, was as the sink and bath green, with golden decorations on it.

And… she had then tested the sink for water, and it had indeed worked, which was perfect, because she still felt really sweaty from last night, and for some reason didn't really felt like walking with a sweaty unruly face. She was sweaty in a lot of other places… actually, she couldn't imagine a place on her body which wasn't sweaty. But those had to wait. So she had filled the sink with water, and was washing her face.

Ranma said he'd go looking for some other stuff, and that they'd meet up in the middle room when they were ready.

And now she was here, waiting for him in the middle room, where they had said to meet. Now, Ranma actually was in the room, a very small room, next to the big middle room. Strange, she hadn't noticed that room before, Ranma apparently had. she couldn't really see well from her place what was in the room, but Ranma seemed really concentrated on something. she slowly peered in the room, at Ranma to see what he was doing.

"Have you found anything yet Ranma" she finally asked. She waited a couple of seconds, and saw him not reacting. She stepped a little closer to the room, and called again. he didn't react. She was getting a tad irritated at him now '_and I thought that would be impossible after last night. You are impossible girl'_. However, that little irritation that was there rapidly faded into nothing, when she just made the simple conclusion that he was very concentrated, and wasn't just ignoring her. still, he could be a little more aware of his surroundings.

She took another three steps in the direction of the chamber. For some reason, she really didn't want to get near that chamber. It had something, something unpleasant. Not evil or something, as if there was something really wrong there, just an unpleasant feeling that told her, that if she would near that chamber, she'd see something really unpleasant.

So, not wanting to go any further, she again called Ranma, now a little louder then before, and again Ranma didn't react. She sighed, and took another three steps in the chamber direction. now she had a more clear view of the chamber, and saw Ranma standing in front of a table. An old table, and like the rest of the house richly decorated and looking extremely expensive. It had only one difference with the rest, it wasn't maintained.

The rest of the house was perfectly maintained. It had no spider-webs, no dust, no nothing, all was perfectly clean. This desk – what it eventually was – was everything but clean. Several spider-webs hung from the wall, on the desk, and the colour of the desk was hardly visible through the thick layer of dust. And in front of that desk stood a chair or some sort, and she thought she saw something sitting in that chair, but couldn't really see it well, since Ranma was perfectly blocking the way, with that old book in his hands.

She neared some more, and saw now everything clear. It was an old room, just as 'well maintained' as the desk, meaning that spider-web decorated the walls and roof. Dust lay everywhere, and here and there she could see a bug. Suddenly, it all seemed clear why she really didn't want to near this chamber '_ack__, bugs_'

"Ranma, found anything" she really hoped he had heard her now. She looked at Ranma, who just turned a page.

"Yep, something really really interesting. Something scary also. Come here for a second, I wanna show ya something" Akane just nodded, and carefully neared the place.

When she was at the door, she saw now more clearly what was next to Ranma, in the chair. It was something with clothes, and something really thin. She unconsciously draw conclusions, but somehow didn't think of them. They did however, made her all the more fearful for what was next to Ranma in that chair. However, if Ranma could just stand there like nothing was out of ordinary, she wouldn't be scared either. So, she looked next to Ranma, and saw a skeleton.

"Is that all?" Akane sighed. A stupid skeleton. She was scared of a stupid skeleton. Sure, it was kind of scary that a human being had died here. And it did really scare her, for about three seconds. Ow well, all this must've been making her nerves really wild, and kind of jumpy. She decided to ignore it any further, and look at what Ranma wanted to show her.

she turned to him, and saw that he was looking at her, with a bit of a bored smile.

"aw come'on. Ya ain't telling me ya'r scared of that stupid skeleton. With all the places we've been, a skeleton shouldn't scare ya. Mean, with being to China, fighting and saffron, and all that stuff…" he turned back to his book. "then again, you jump at everything. don't ya". He laughed a bit when had ended his sentence, a pleasant soft laugh.

Strange, it didn't anger or irritate her as much as she thought it would. It probably was because of the way he said it. he didn't sound mean, not at all. There was even something nice in that sentence. However, it certainly wasn't nice to say that she jumps at everything. that wasn't true, not at all. She was just, jumpy. Anyone would be in this place…she looked at Ranma. well, any normal someone anyway.

She wanted to comment back, say something, answer his challenge, but he bead her.

"look her" he shoved the book in front of her. "it's a diary of this ol'chumps here I think. It gives a little explanation on this place. I just read a little; the first days he was here. From what I've read there ain't no danger here."

Akane looked at the scribbles. It was written, and written quite well. It was kind of archaic though, not how one would write a book from this time. But it was readable, and it was Japanese of course. Still, they would need some time translating this.

She looked up at Ranma from the book, and gave him a very serious look.

"and I am NOT jumpy, this place just creeps me out" and with that Ranma started laughing. Still pleasant but a lot harder then previously.

-end of Flashback-

the diary had explained much, actually, it had told them everything they knew from this place.

The first days told how he had suddenly, without really knowing why or how, found himself in this place. Much like Akane and himself. He had also said that he was writing from memories. He hadn't actually been writing the first days in this house, more like after the first 3 or 4 weeks.

He told how he just went to bed on a calm day. it was summer, and the weather was warm. He had a great day in the palace. Walking through the gardens, enjoying the warm sun, and writing a bit. His castle was beautiful, the sun was beautiful, the fields of his lands lay there, having the same beauty as the sun and his castle. He was happy, the people were happy, everyone was happy. It was actually just a day like any other, but still very happy day. and then, he went to sleep.

And awoke in this place. At first he had no idea what to do, so he had hidden himself bravely under the table, till he was sure that no one transported him here to eat him and was now looking for him, he stayed right there. So after two days, he came from under the table, and began searching for clues as to where he was.

That went on and on and on. Explaining very detailed what he and Akane had already seen at that moment. And then he wrote that he didn't know what he had to do. There was no one here, no one who could explain him what this place meant. There was also no way out, no door that could lead to a place out. He had searched the walls, but found nothing that he could use. So, eventually he had to conclude that there was simply no way out, and that there was no one who could safe him.

Then he began telling about the place behind the very special looking green doors, that were in the middle of the wall, in the big green middle room. At that time, he and Akane hadn't looked behind those. Somehow, those green doors were really not that inviting. As if those doors held something really big, and really dangerous. Eventually, they held nothing more then a strange green curved furniture or something like that. It was a green something that went into the air, and stopped at his waist. At the end of the meter long pole, there was place for something, and that something was a green diamond. It wasn't a plate or something where the thing was thrown into, but a fitted place, where the diamond fitted perfectly into. Another thing that really was strange, where the cables and metal object that adorned the green pole, as if it was some high tech pole, that absolutely seemed to have no other purpose except holding that diamond.

And around the pole he saw the same magnificence that he saw in the other rooms. The walls were a beautiful green, adorned with green lines and patterns. The ground had, like the middle room, a green carpet, which was complete heaven to walk on with bare feet. Everything just radiated the same message: "I am beautiful, I am rich, I am everything and so much more, I'm a king and royal,". The room felt like too beautiful to be one of a king. Strange it was, because all in all, the room wasn't that large, and there was only one object in it: a pole with a diamond in it. it was also the only room that had no source of light… well, they didn't notice one, and still, he could see everything perfectly.

As soon as he noticed though, he also began to notice the absence of shadows, which eventually lead to a very dizzy Ranma. He got around it, and then just wondered were the room was built for.

The diary also had an explanation of that. But before that, he had written 2 weeks full of memories of his life before he had written out completely how the rooms looked, how he could meet no one, and how lonely he felt.

He was a shogun in say, the years 1600, or something near. Akane thought that anyway. He actually hadn't had such an exciting life. his underlings were happy, there was no war, there was enough food, and he had a very lovely wife, with lovely kids. All in all, a perfect life, one you'd hardly come across in those days probably. War was almost everywhere back then, and no one was safe for it. except some lords apparently, and he was one of them.

He wrote on; how he wanted to go back to his lovely wife, and six equally lovely kids. He wrote how he wanted to hug and kiss his wife, and how he wanted to lift his kids in his arms, and play with them. He also told his diary, how he longed for his wife's body, how he wanted to stroke, and caress her bosom, and all those others parts. And well… he hadn't mentioned his kids in that part. It was also one of the later parts. He had that part translated together with Akane – well, they almost translated everything together, except when one had to take a bath, had to go to the little room, had to cook… well, stuff like that. It wasn't like there was anything else to do – and both blushed at what the man wrote. None of it left anything over to their imagination.

It was even worse later. He apparently was starting to feel so lonely, he began to sum up all the things he had ever done with his wife, and also everything he dreamt of doing with her. and how he regretted those could never be done now, him being stuck. Both he and Akane had again blushed, and not just a little bit.

They were very new to that subject, and still somewhat shy about it. they hadn't talked about it after awakening that night. It wasn't like there weren't other things to worry about then anyway. But somehow, the story of the poor sob who was captured here had… put a serious fire in both of them. And that night, for the second time, they had enjoyed each other company thoroughly.

After many other paragraphs on how lonely he felt, and how he longed for his wife and kids and yadieyadieya, he finally came to the most interesting part… well, not the most interesting, but something that explained some things.

He told in his diary how, he had no idea why, he had put this diamond on his forehead. He really had no idea how that came to be. Suddenly, he found himself in that room, with that green diamond in his hands, and had an irresistible urge to put it on his forehead. And so he had done just that.

He had then dreamed, said the diary. It was not like a normal dream, it was a dream that he could control. After a second time, he said that it wasn't really a dream anymore, but more like his imagination brought back to life. it was wonderful.

And then he began explaining those dreams, or imaginations, or whatever it was. somehow, he thought he was reading a copy of those longings the man had 15 pages ago. oh well, he hadn't minded, he wanted to love Akane in that way much more anyway. So after having put the diary aside again for a time, he had grabbed it, and began reading again. and so for the coming two weeks, he described his dreams.

They were all very beautiful; he said, all perfectly what he wished for. There was nothing, really nothing wrong with them. He thought that he finally had landed in heaven. A day later, he regretted he had ever said that, and corrected his mistake, it was a fake heaven. A heaven that made his dreams real, a heaven that could give him everything he wanted, because whatever he wanted he simply dreamt it. But none of it was real, it was all in his head. It was perfect, like a machine, but still it was all so very wrong. And it saddened him that he loved a life, a fake life, more then the life he had, the real life.

And from that point, he began to tell about the machine in disgust. It was a horrible machine, a machine of the devil. But he wouldn't sell his soul to it, no; he would fight against it. problem was that he had no idea how. So he simply stayed using that machine, hoping that somehow he could come up with a solution.

And he could come up with a solution. It was a very simple solution, one that he probably would come up with himself… eventually. And in all it's simplicity, the solution was very cunning. He used the dream machine against itself, well, not really against, he told that, that was impossible. The green diamond was indestructible. When he had hidden it, flushed it through the toilet, thrown into the bin, it always appeared in the plate on the green pole.

So, one day he had decided that he wanted to dream about the plans to make this machine. What he then got was something very strange.

Ranma also noticed that the writer was writing in a different style by now. Where he first was somewhat poetic, even literary, he now was fast, and plain. He didn't extend his sentences more then necessary. As if he was in a great hurry. 50 pages ago, he'd write a page on how he 'really' dreamed of his wife, now he told 4 'fake' dreams on one page. It was also done with less expensive carefully chosen words. They were more brute, and crude. Both he and Akane hadn't really that much experience with reading about certain genitals, and some oaths and curses were also pretty rough. They had just gulped, sometimes had a good night sleep over it, but generally ignored it as far as possible, and tried to pick out the most important parts.

Anyway, the first time he had dreamt about the making of the machine, he wasn't really making sense. He wrote of turning around, seeing stars, striped, letters, words, many colours, it was making him sick, it was everything and more, and at the same time it was nothing at all. It was as if he was just writing down whichever words came in his head. After some time thought he began to make sense to them, and probably also to himself.

He thought, for some reason, that he was dreaming about someone. He things he heard, saw and read where like thoughts of a person. He was, quoting: travelling through a whirlpool of thoughts. Some he had even written down.

"Must built…"

"not perfect, we are not perfect, humans are not perfect…"

"Machines, Machines are perfect…"

"going to built a machine…"

"all must be perfect…"

"I will show that a perfect human exists…"

"Machine is a perfect thing…"

"for a human to reach perfection…"

the writer said that it was a human being who thought, it only could be. Because sometimes, he felt emotions. Human emotions, things like hate, and love, sadness and happiness. But the hardest feeling he felt was hate. The human he saw the thoughts off was angry with something or someone. So angry, that he began hating.

The writer suspected that it was humanity he was hating. He had trouble believing that himself. He, who loved his wife kids, and underlings more then himself, couldn't believe one hated everything, and everyone. That was one part he had chosen to write out more then the rest. He repeated constantly, how it shocked him to feel so much hate. It was actually so shocked that he didn't dare to enter the machine again. but after a day or two, he went back in, and directed the machine to dream again about the plans to make this machine.

At this time, the writer had also written down some hypotheses. He suspected that the human who he thought of, was the creator of this machine. That he had built it, to show the people how perfection would look. But he didn't understand why he then was in the person's mind, or why the person hated the other people then so much? If he hated them for their imperfection, why make a machine then? There were other machines who were perfect already, no need to make on, to proof for the umpteenth time that machines were perfect. Okay, it was a kind of special machine, but still.

But, he had put the diamond back on his head, and was again in the thoughts of the man. Now, they had advanced a lot. The man was building something apparently. But… the writer noticed something was wrong. He didn't felt hate anymore, he didn't felt other people anymore. It were just him, and the person's thoughts. As if he had gone somewhere, where other people were not able to get. He had decided to ignore it, and tried to find out what he was thinking.

As he himself had made the hypothecation, the man was indeed making the machine. He wrote on how boring his thought were then. Calculations, endless calculations, on how the power should surge through this and that, and how the brain's wavelengths. He wrote it down quickly, without spending much further thought to it. "I do not understand anything of it. so I will not tire myself by writing down the science his thought were sprouting".

At some point, he began pointing out that the man was somewhat crazy. He didn't think someone could read brains or something, or do things with the brains, by machinery. That was impossible. But he hardly paid mind to it. instead, he choose to pick out the more interesting out of his thoughts, that apparently, to his opinion were none.

Days on, the man his thoughts were full of calculations, and thoughts he didn't understand anything off, after some time, he had the impressions, the man was starting to get so into his calculations, that he actually began to think in calculations. The amount of food he decided to eat wasn't any longer decided by how hungry he felt, but by how his calculation directed him to eat, calculations on how long he should sleep, how long he should wear his clothes, everything was thought through his calculations. But one thought always stayed the same, namely. : "Must reach perfection".

Then, it began to get exciting. Both he and Akane hadn't slept that night, so taken by the story of the man.

It namely thought he had found out what was happening. The thoughts, the calculations, the slowly changing of the thoughts into grades, numbers and calculations. The man's thoughts were slowly changing into a machine. He knew it now. The man didn't want humanity anymore, he hated it, it was imperfect. But Machines, machines were perfect, machines were everything. never there was a flaw, never did they anything you wouldn't expect. They wouldn't let you down, they wouldn't betray you, and wouldn't make mistakes. So, he must've had decided that the only way for a human to be perfect is to be a machine. And what was perfect for one human? His dream. in a dream, everything one wanted to have happened. All was like he'd expect, dreams wouldn't let him down, dreams wouldn't make mistakes, dreams were perfect. So the ultimate life form was the one of the dream, and so he had to life in such a dream, and how else then being a machine could be living in such a dream be accomplished.

And thus, day for day, the man had changed himself in a machine. A perfect machine without flaw, fully perfect. He was a machine, and he was in a dream world. He was even such a perfect machine, that he could make people dream. he was really perfect. Because he delivered perfection to the other people. In those dreams the people had, everything would happen as how the dreamer would want it. and so, it was perfect.

And that's how the man eventually changed into a machine. But how had he managed to get here, he didn't know? A place, a perfect place, that had no people in it, was complete lifeless. Wasn't he then a person on earth? A person with such a desire to be perfect, like a machine, that he eventually become on? He had no idea, it seemed, he could only guess.

And so, the writer thought that, in the man's desire to be perfect, and in his endless hate for humanity for it's imperfection, he had created a sort of barrier around him. one that made him blind for every imperfection that was human, and that blinded the humans for him, because he hated people so much, that he wouldn't be able to stand them. And so, he had created a sphere around him.

And that was where they were now. In that same sphere, a sphere created to be released from all, and everything that was human.

"Umph…" Ranma looked around, searching what had launched into him, and looked right into the eyes of Akane, who smiled sweetly at him. then she saw what he was doing, and began to frown.

Ranma gave her a small pleasant smile. "don't worry. Just doing this, 'cause else I'll forget how that session went. Besides, got the solution. So I'm done. Gonna take a break after this, like I promised."

Akane nodded, and then spread her arms around him, and hugged him tightly. Before Ranma returned her hug as intense as she, he scanned his surroundings, and saw that he was again sitting on the floor, against the wall. Since the carpet was really perfectly soft, he found it much nicer to simply sit on the carpet then on his chair. His chair was softer, sure, but he hadn't had that much space there, then on the ground.

Still a bit drowsy from recalling memories, he grabbed Akane, and softly pressed her against him. sometimes, it was really a bliss, a simple bliss to hold her, have her in his arms. And then stroke her back, but nothing more, just stroke her back or go through her soft hair or pat her head. It was just caressing, and nothing more.

It gave such a pleasant feeling. Not the one that came with love making. This one was more subtle, more gentle, and a lot softer and less intense. A couple of months ago, he couldn't imagine himself enjoying this… this, soft heaven. But here he was, sitting on his but, on the ground, in a room that was much to big for the two of them, holding Akane softly, and wishing it would never stop.

He could, to some extend describe the feeling that was brought when making love. it was intense, it was building. It was so heavy pleasant, that it shut down all your rational thinking, and let your instinct rule. But this, just cuddling and caressing. The only sentence he could think of to describe it was "walking on clouds". He indeed felt like he was walking on clouds, and like some strange soft pleasant thing had placed itself in his heart, and caressed it. it was so wonderful, so heavenly.

And so, sometimes, when he was sitting like this, thinking of things, she would come to him to softly lay her body against his, and just dream with him, enjoy with him, and walk on the clouds with him. and he enjoyed it so much, that every time they parted, it was like a piece of him parted. But well… food and things like that were a necessarity. And so, he was now enjoying the soft fragrance of Akane's just washed hair.

"had a nice bath?" the soft feeling that he was now experiencing in his heart made him a bit deep and slow. But somehow, he knew that the words he spoke were so much more gentle then in any other situation. This situation demanded sweetness, and being gentle. There was no place for excitement, only for bliss, no place for irritation, only for sweetness, no place for anger, only for a soft subtle feeling in the heart that ate every negative force that existed in his heart.

"it was… very nice" she said equally soft and gentle. The slowness in speaking the words came not from the fact that she or he were tired, or weary from answering. But the feeling in their hearts demanded to be felt, to be enjoyed. So, saying a word, meant diverting your attention only a little bit. And the soft feeling didn't agree with having to give more attention to a second word so soon. So, the second word came only when again having bathed in that wonderful feeling.

So, he said nothing, and went on with softly stroking her hair. He could go on with stroking her hair forever, if it wasn't for some human necessaries.

It was so strange actually, but they never have gone from this to their other form of sliding love into each other. This was just too sweet to let go. He think that he wouldn't care if Armageddon came, he would just sit in this position, and enjoy the presence of the love incarnated.

And so, now softer then ever, more gentle then ever, his memories faded back to where he stopped.

So, eventually they had discovered how this all came to be, well, they thought they knew how this all came to be. The writer himself had said that it was only what he thought could be. He wasn't really sure. In his kingdom, many strange things had happened. Like the birth of babies, or the first flight of a bird, or the first leaves on the trees. It all seemed magic to the man. Back then – when translating the book - he had made some crude comment on what the guy thought as magic. now though, he saw which magic he meant.

Not the magic, like changing genders, or the magic that changed their looks somewhat, but real magic. the magic that let everything grow, the magic that sang in his heart, and that he now felt deeper then ever. That magic was, while a different kind of magic, now also magic to him. maybe he saw it less poetic then many of the other people. For other people, it was a way of describing something very beautiful. For him, it was magic, because he couldn't find any other name for it. earlier, he took all those things for granted, now he saw the grandness, and the beauty of it all, now, he thought it was magic. deep wonderful magic.

And so, he understood the guy to some extent, when he explained, that, that magic, the trees, the bird, the humans, that while their could be so much magic in beautiful loving things, there could be the same magic in ugly hating things. And that magic probably was, what created the sphere. And while it was the hate that had created the sphere, it was with the urge to perfection that it was made. Because this place, while really lacking any imperfection, was certainly beautiful. He had seen on his travels many places, and many things. And he knew what this place missed, really missed. Love. there was no love in this place for anyone, only love for perfection.

Then again, they filled that lack of love more then perfectly. Hah, he and Akane were far above perfect, so there.

Anyway, it was on their third day here that they were as far as understanding why the sphere was created. However, they weren't any further on how to escape. At this point, Akane and he were fearing, because, they were over the half of the book, and well… the guy apparently hadn't made it, if his corpse was any indication how he had fared.

But, they held on, and read on. Maybe somehow, somewhere, they would be able to see a way, where the other had not.

So, he had now concluded in his book, that the place finally was finished. The place was there, barred against the impefect humans, and he himself perfect as a machine, and so he came to the conclusion that he had no idea what to do now. He knew how the thing was built, knew why it was built, but that helped nothing. He still couldn't get out of here. So, he had dreamed on, and on, and every time writing the dreams in his book. They were now boring dreams, dreams where he walked through and endless valley, where there was green and water everywhere. Where the birds sang their beautiful songs. All very boring.

And they turned pages, and pages, coming closer to the end, and there came not a change, not one change in the stories. Always dreams, dreams and more dreams. At this point he was seriously getting afraid that it might lead to no solution at all, that eventually he would've dreamed so much, that the guy forgot to ate, and thus actually starve. He also was weighting the idea of trying that stone for himself. However, Akane had said that they'd better first read the book, and only then deciding if it was safe.

Of course, he thought he knew it better – while he thought was most of the time right, this time he had to confess that hey, maybe she had a point – but this was no the case right now. So, listening to Akane's words, he stayed of the Diamond, and read on.

5 days they had now been translating, and in those two days, there was no change in the man's days. Dreams, endless stupidly boring dreams.

Till, on day, there happened something peculiar. He was dreaming about himself, fishing in a nice warm lake. All was peaceful, and all was right with the world. Till suddenly, the river changed colour. From a beautiful healthy sprinkling blue transparent water, it changed into a blood red river. He thought that he had landed in a nightmare. But that was possible. He made his dreams himself, and he wouldn't make a nightmare. Besides, outside the fact that the river was now red, all stayed the same. He still was catching fish, and the trees still rustled softly in the wind. The sun shone heavenly on him, and the atmosphere was still pleasant. The only real thing changed was the colour of the river.

However, fishing in a red river really wasn't that comforting. So he woke. And then he began musing over the red river. What could it mean? What was the problem? Why did his dream falter?

He began to write down the problem, his questions, and started narrowing down his question to one simple question. "Why did his dream failed?". That question, because it was a question that was essential for the whole machine. It couldn't fail, because it was a machine, but now, it had failed. It didn't had a problem, he didn't had a nightmare, and there wasn't anything wrong with the river, the real question was: why had it failed? And so he began musing on that question.

And eventually, he found his answer. The man, who made the machine, was actually the machine himself. It wasn't a machine, but a human, just like him. only so in his quest for perfection that he had thought that he could become one. but, so reasoned the man, he must be conscious of what he did. Every dream he created was consciously created. The calculations, the waves necessary for the dream, were all created in his conscious mind. And that conscious mind could make a mistake. No matter how perfect he thought he had made his thinking, no matter how automatic he thought it was, it was still a conscious mind, that consciously made all the calculations automatically. And so, like every other human, he could make a mistake. Mistaking was a human ability, and he couldn't escape it. and thus he had made that mistake.

Now they were almost at the end of the book. The last 3 pages were devoted for a conclusion. And in that conclusion, they had arranged a solution. One that strangely enough had worked. Thought it took a lot of testing first.

The man had remembered, that while machine were not very frequent in his era, when they failed they mostly broke. Not every one, but most of them broke. If he could only make this machine failing more, he could break the machine. And if that wasn't theory enough, he developed another one. the man thought he was machine, as perfect as a machine. However, if you proved him wrong, by always letting him make mistakes, then he would probably see that he wasn't a machine, and break or something.

Ranma himself found it a little far fetched. Why would that be? The machine may be able to live perfectly with a mistake. It was a machine, they didn't think, they only acted. But well… if a machine indeed made mistakes, he knew that it eventually would break. And, it had a conscious mind, otherwise it indeed wouldn't make a mistake. So that meant that if he indeed made many mistakes, the conscious mind may go rampart. But, what if the conscious mind didn't give shit for the mistakes he made? Then again, if the diary man had only half right, the machine man was obsessed with being right, and couldn't stand being wrong, or make a mistake.

How hard he searched, he couldn't find a crack in his logic.

Then he went on.

He said that, to let him make a mistake, you should dream out of perfection. The machine his conscious mind works with what it expects. And it expects what you dream. so, you could dream whatever you wish, he will always expect what you dream, and thus will be able to built to that expectation, just like a machine. A machine sees something, and acts this way, or a machine sees something else, and goes that way. With this machine it was pretty much the same. He saw your dream, and went the way of the dream. the only difference was, that this conscious mind had to see the dream for himself, and had to create it himself, consciously, and so could make a mistake in creating that dream. but whatever dream, being that a nightmare, or something else, he would always be able to create it perfectly. Because that was what he was built for, perfection.

So, he needed to somehow change his dream that something unpredicted happened. Problem was that he couldn't direct his dreams. As soon as his dreams started, he had no control over them. They just passed him by. He could chose when to wake, and when to sleep. But not how the dream would go, where he would walk, or stuff like that.

He had to, somehow create another life in his dream. a life that could walk in a dream he had created, a dream where he would be in, and where he would do the expected, but were the other life form would do completely different things, things that the machine didn't expect, and so would make mistakes.

But how to create a life form, into his dreams?

The end

well, the end of the diary anyway.

The man probably died from starving himself to dead, or just of old age. Probably from starvation, because the diary ended with that conclusion.

And so, Ranma had reasoned, had thought, and had pained his brain over the problem. The reasoning of the man sounded foolproof, but he was the one who would have to bring it to life, literally. Eventually, he had decided that he really needed to look in that dream-world, otherwise he wouldn't be able to research the place they had to break.

And so, with being cautious, heaving his defences when using the diamond, Ranma experienced his first dream. it came a little as a disappointment. He had expected something grand, that would leave him speechless, that would bring him to the highest grounds of enjoyment, well… or something similar or close. But all he got was a nice dream about him and Akane camping in the woods. They trained a little, then had a spar, and afterwards, they had wild gracious love making. It was nice, very nice. Also it all looking as if really was happening made it all the more pleasant. And so, he did woke with a happy heart, but also somewhat disappointed.

Then he and Akane had discussed what to do now. She said that she also had to try once, he said that… well, he wanted to solve the problem… but so, that he was the one solving. Anyway, eventually, Akane also tried – it was much nicer, he now knew, to work on something together, because when doing that, there was much cuddling and caressing involved – and as Ranma also had a nice, but not wildly exciting dream.

It was about she and him going out shopping. Very simple all in all. Them walking from shop to shop, buying this, and buying that, for no particular reason. Though there was one part in Akane's explanation were she began to stutter. It was something about small clothes, and toys, stuff like that. Well, since she dismissed it as something really not worth mentioning, he dismissed it as something not worth thinking about.

And so, they both sat at a certain moment at the large table in the middle room, looking at each other, and both having no idea how to solve their little problem. They had both now seen the dream, and well, didn't found anything that could lead them to the solution that the diary offered.

So, not really knowing what else to do, Ranma again put the green diamond on his head, to enter dream land. Now though, he made one adjustment. Whereas the last time he was very careful, now he would try to be relaxed, completely relaxed. Letting himself completely open. Maybe by heaving his defences, he also made sure he wouldn't dream anything dangerous. Well, he reasoned that when he was normally dreaming, he was also completely relaxed and defenceless, so he'd try the same on this machine.

When coming back from the dream, and Akane asked him what happened, he could only scratch his head, and laugh stupidly. Sure, their relation was going very well, and that was probably one of the biggest understatement ever said. He couldn't imagine a life without her anymore. But well, he was scared how she would react when he'd explain his dream to her. it didn't had any whips or any material in it, but it sure came close. And well, he had enjoyed the when dreaming the dream, and enjoyed it still when remembering the dream. which only added to his inability to speak. Speaking was pretty hard when flashes of memory were constantly asking his attention, pretty rough flashes, that had as main character the girl in front of him, just not so innocent looking. So he just said that she was the main character – he just wondered if she wanted to be that main character.

Now, he wanted Akane more then anything to try the machine. He gave her the advice to drop every defence. The machine wouldn't attack her, or hurt her in her dreams. It was perfectly safe. When heaving your defence physically, you'd also do it mentally, and that would stop from dreaming nicely.

And so, Akane dreamed, and then came back. Ranma could only smile a smug smile when she saw Akane's burning blush, and looking everywhere but at him. the answer he heard when he asked for her dream, he had expected.

"just err… ehm… just, dream… you know… my dreams, nothing really…" she made a sound with her throat "nothing really special" she still couldn't look him into his eyes.

"so, your fidgeting, and looking everywhere but at me, is because you just had a very normal dream?" Akane now looked straight at Ranma, and instead of answered kept looking into his clear blue eyes.

She gulped "a very normal dream for me, I guess" she again looked away, and began laughing nervously.

"ow ehm… Ranma, aren't you tired? Or need any sleep? Because… ehm, I'm reeeeeeealy sleepy" Ranma just smiled, and speeded behind Akane.

"Ya know 'Kane. We could use that machine sometimes for a better purpose. Like, having again a very nice not defended dream? ya know, to get some inspiration. The things from that second session of yours were really great"

he felt Akane moving in his arms somewhat nervous.

"we could… ehm, I guess" she gulped, and got a very nice blush on her cheeks. Ranma leaned his head against the wall, and went back to remembering everything that had happened in the two months here.

After those not defended dream, Ranma again tried the machine, but this time, He'd see how far he could control the dream. if what the diary was saying is true, then he should be able to have a certain control in which dream he would dream. Sure, he'd be unable to decide what he did in that dream, but at least, he decided what were the surroundings.

First time had failed, he lost his concentration when focusing on a simple training trip. Instead, he had a nice dream, how he seriously kicked Happosai's ass, and rescued Akane from his vile clutches. Second try was better. He was in a normal forest, training with is father. Nothing was strange, nothing out of ordinary, just him and his dad training. It was a nice simple dream, and one he had somehow created.

And while the dream gave indeed some satisfaction, they never truly did. Somehow they felt fake. Somehow, that didn't surprise him. he had the best of dreams right here. His dream was already reality. His reality was his dreams, only 10 times better, Akane made sure of that.

Now, he was in the last stage of executing their plan. Also the hardest part in their plan – well, their plan. The plan of the diary man. Somehow he had to get a person in that dream, someone who would do something unexpected. But how could something like that happen? All those things happened in his head, everything was just his imagination, that somehow got controlled by the green diamond.

And here they lost hope. There was no way he could create something, or someone in his dreams that actually could move, out of his imagination. Logic, because, as soon as someone would move, not like his imagination directed, it wasn't his imagination anymore, so, not his dream. indeed, that was the whole point of it, but… the point was also impossible for as far as they saw it.

Days they had walked aimlessly, days they had just looked into nothing, hoping that one of them could have a smart intake on it, and maybe so have an explanation. But none came. And where the first days were filled with experimenting their new found love for each other, the later days were filled with worry and anxiousness. And that worry was a weak barrier against their curiousity, that was so in the beginning – later though. The worry began to bite on them, the longer they failed to find an answer, the longer they stared at the skeleton. If they didn't find anything really soon, they would end up just like their best friend, Mr. Diary-man.

5 days since Ranma succeeded in forming and creating his own dreams, and the last two days weren't so beautiful as the first three. He was feeling trapped, he felt defeated, and actually, he was defeated. He couldn't go nowhere. He was stuck, he was doomed, and If he didn't find a way out really soon, he was dead, together with his love Akane. He couldn't bare that thought.

This was no way to be defeated, this was everything that could be dishonourable. Not even giving the enemy a clean end, but a slow and painful one, filled with doubt, and for some time false hope. How could they escape, what could they do? Yep, those last two days were the contrary of the first three. Instead of wanting to know every part of Akane's mind and body, he was angrily walking around. Never stopping, never waiting, not listening to anything Akane said, not listening to anything he himself said to him. he was angry, very angry. He wanted to cry, wanted to scream, wanted to tear this place apart.

A stupidly hard slam on the wall had only given him three broken fingers. They healed fast, uncanny fast, even for Ranma. But at that moment he didn't care. He was furious, and the second day wasn't better, worse even. So worse, that Akane had taken the liberty of closing herself up in their chambers, she wasn't angry with Ranma, she had understood him. but, she also had never Ranma seen so, furious, so angry. And while he said that he had every muscle under control, she asked if it was okay if she stayed in their room. Ranma just nodded, very ashamed. But he didn't want to change, not now. He was to furious.

And so, while Akane was hiding in their Room. Ranma had enough of the waiting, the thinking for an answer that wouldn't come as long as he was angered. So, furiously, he went to the only part he could think he could smash. He went to the side room of the middle room, the part that didn't clean itself, the part that had spider-webs everywhere, the part that was small, and had a sort of bureau. The room that had a skeleton still sitting in his chair. Ranma stood next to the skeleton, furiously staring down at it. and with one furious fist slammed the skeleton of his chair. His hand went right through the skeleton, only smashing a couple of ribs against the wall. The rest – lacking support from the ribs - just fell down on the chair.

Ranma looked how the clothes of the man directly disappeared as dust in the air. He was breathing deep, so had to try not to inhale the dust-clothes of the man. The bones lay everywhere passively, so he couldn't vent his anger on them anymore. Also, in the far recesses of his hell whited mind, there was a little voice saying that slamming the dead was very dishonourable.

Deciding to leave the bones alone, he grabbed the chair, and slammed it on the floor. The chair broke with a heavy sound. The hard browned wood splintered under the heavy force that slammed it on the ground. Ranma looked at the mess he made, the rug of the chair still holding. He was breathing hard, and looked strangely at the ground. There was lying something there, a piece of paper it seemed. His anger exchanged for curiousity, he grabbed the paper and looked at it.

It was a perfect white paper, with bleu lines on it, above though, there was written something in black. It was hardly unreadable, as if the hand who had written it hardly had the power to write anything. With a lot of trying, he eventually could decipher it. "Found… Why? Too late… diary… hunger…this is … key… … … " there were some last letter that he couldn't really read well, but he guessed it said something in the lines of "for machine".

He ran to the middle room, grabbed a chair, and began studying it.

It was a strange piece of paper, with a lot of strange bleu marks on it. it was in Japanese luckily, but this document looked more of the hand of someone that worked with it, then just a person who described a machine. And where he couldn't make out any letter of the bleu lines and neat looking formula's, he could understand one thing.

"They weren't dreams" Ranma looked up at the wall. "they weren't dreams". He looked at the wall for a couple of minutes in complete amazement. "not dreams at all." Akane choose that moment to appear, softly gently opening the door. She eeped when she found herself 1 meter above the ground, and a wild grinning Ranma holding her, and turning her in circles laughing.

"they weren't dream, not dreams at all." Akane couldn't help but laugh with Ranma. Somehow he had found something that would help them find a solution for their problem. Ranma eventually put her down, and kissed her hard on the lips. After 2 minutes or so, he draw back, and looked his love and life straight in her eyes.

"I Love ya Akane. I love, love, love, love, love ya. Never ever think anything else. Because, I LOVE ya." And again he pushed his lips furiously against hers. While he was kissing her, he kneeled down, to make it himself somewhat more comfortable. Finally, he broke the kiss again, and now looked straight into her eyes.

"I'm so sorry for my behaviour, but 'kane, this bloody arses were really working on my nerves. But, They won't defeat me… no, 'cause I got'a solution. Well, maybe not a solution, but I got something to work with" Akane could only smile at him. she had no idea what was happening, but it was clear that Ranma had found something.

"that's alright silly. Just… try to control yourself better next time…" she tapped him lightly on the cheek. Ranma just grinned. He grabbed Akane, and put her on the table sitting. He himself placed himself between her knees, and looked up at here.

"I gotta explain it, it's not really simple.".

and so he did. It wasn't a dream, it was a something, a space created by the machine, that looked exactly like his dream. but it wasn't his dream. it was a parallel universe or some sort. It was certainly not here, but somewhere far away, a place where this machine could create and delete as many dreams as he wanted. It was also not them walking in that dream, it was another someone their. It was created someone who looked exactly like them, and who would do exactly what his dream directed him to do. But it wasn't him. and the diamond was meant to give all those feelings, and all those things that copy of him felt to him. that's probably why the dreams felt so fake. The feelings he felt in those dreams, weren't his own, but those of the figure standing there.

And so, he simply had to destroy that reality. Then the machine would break, and they would be able to escape. Problem was, that it was harder then he had expected. He still couldn't control that other character that was walking there. That character was under the control of the machine, and the machine made sure that that character acted exactly like his own dreams directed. Even when he dreamt of that character destroying everything in his dream, the machine wouldn't explode.

But now he knew what to do, well he didn't knew, but he felt, knew somehow still what to do, and he did it. the trick was to create someone else in that world, that was not under the machine his control, but under his control, or just under his own control. But how was he to create something like that? That part came very strangely.

He put the diamond on his head, and concentrated very hard on creating something there, something new, a new life-form, a force, a force, a fore, a new force. A new life. his force, his dream created it, so his force must be able to create something also there. If the machine could, he could also. And that's when he felt his Ki streaming. He literally felt how something, or someone was draining all his power from him. second for second, he felt himself weakening. Till there was no longer any strength in him left, and he just fell flat on the ground.

And then he saw the most bizarre dream. it was in a city, just like the Nerima district. And there stood someone, someone who looked like him. he couldn't think he had failed, because he was dreaming. As soon as the figure began to move, it began to get weird. He looked around him, looked above him, and under him, and eventually scratched the root of his pigtail. Finally he began screaming.

"where am I?"

"where is this?"

"What… How has this happened to me? I was just in that room with Akane and…?"

"where, where is Akane?"

"AKANE"

next time:

Wild Horse's Run

First move

Duds

Five of spades


End file.
